Star Trek: New Power
by n00b-076
Summary: Starfleet is launching the first of its new class of star ships. The Carrier! Join the crew as they meet each other and set off on their first mission.
1. Chapter 1

STAR TREK

"NEW POWER"

The adventures of the USSc Shake

.

An epic storie about the new powerfull Starship Carrier. Join Captain Christ van Silfhout and his Crew on their journey into the unknown future of the United Federation of Planets after the Dominion War and the return of Voyager.

(c)2002 Deuzige Shake.

Startrek, the startrek universe and everything in it is (c) Paramount Inc. This includes the characters Ezri Dax and Quark used in this storie.

All other characters, the vessel USS Shake and all it carries are not (c) Paramount. I created them myself. 

Chapter 1: Arriving at DS9.

The space station around which much of the Dominion War was fought.

Commander Christ van Silfhout stepped off the Transporter pad. He'd just beamed down to the spacestation from "his" ship to be reassigned. He tapped his communicator "van Silfhout to Neanderthall, thank you leutenant commander. You are now in command, take her home Jack" He said. "Thank you commander for keeping us all alive" a voice replied from the communicator "Neanderthall out".

With a sad feeling coming over him he looked around the transporter room. Except for the engeneer working the transporter controls noone was there. "Welcome to deep Space 9" the engineer said. "You're expected in briefing room 5 for a meeting with Admiral Gabber in 2 hours, commander van Silfhout.". "Thank you Leutenant, I'll be there." Christ said as he left the room.

He went to the stations bar, the famous "Quark's" and ordered a Wodka Redbull. After the young bajorran woman working the bar gave him the drink he looked around and sat down at an empty table near the dartboard. There his thoughts drifted away and Christ went back through the past months in thought.

The Uss Neanderthall had been on a mission to identify, analise and neutralize any remaining Jem Hadar resistance there might have remained. The went into Breen Space, as that part of space had not been entered by any Federation vessel since the end of the war. It should have been a routine mission. It wasn't.

The Uss Neanderthall found some tetracil white production fascillities, no longer running ofcourse. Nothing odd really. Until they found a Romulan Armada heading for Federation Space. Since that discovery, the crew had fought space battle after space battle just to stay alive and make it back to Federation space. Only half the crew had survived and one of the casualties had been the captain, one and a half months ago. Since than Christ had been acting captain.

They were able to inform Starfleet who intervened, diplomatically, by letting the Romulans know Starfleet was aware of their Armada and had sent her own to meet them. The Romulans knew and aborted the invasion. A few warbirds continued to persue the Neanderthall as long as they could.

Christ'd been first officer ever since the Neanderthalls refit, at the beginning of the Dominion war. It had been fitted with an illegal Klingon cloaking device, and with an extra 6 torpedo tubes 3 phaserbanks and new shields. By the time they made it back from enemy space, the only thing the Neanderthall was able to do was run! It's engines, lifesupport and navigation were the only systems aboard operating. It was enough though.

Christ would have brought the ship all the way back to spacedock to be repaired and recrewed but Starfleet wouldn't let him. They had reassigned him to a new ship. Back to first officer he thought.

As he was thinking he never noticed the young trill coming up to his table and sitting down. "I've never seen anyone this deep in thought" she opened. Startled Christ looked up. The sight he saw did not improve his reactional skills. He couldn't utter a word or move a muscle as he looked into a set of beutifull innocent sweet blue eyes.

She sure is a stunner!

He looked at the rest of the face to find it was equally beautifull and innocent looking. After a 20 second pause he finally replied "Err...I'm sorry... I never noticed you... I err... wouw... eeeh err... I am commander Christ van Silfhout, nice to meet you..." he stumbled. A reddish blush appeared on the young trills face as her 9 past lives's experiences told her the reason for his stumbling: He had a crush on her. "Nice to meet you to commander. My name is..."

"the famous Ezri Dax, Joined Trill, former host Jadzia Dax... The FAMOUS Jadzia Dax." Christ finished. "I've seen Jake Sisko's reports and the Starfleet journals. I've admired the stories that Jake Sisko wrote about you, and the rest of the DS9 crew." He said. Then another famous face appeared

"Well, than you must have heard about my heroics as well" a ferrengi asked.

"Ofcourse he has, don't worry Quark, you're just as famous as I am isn't he?" Ezri asked Christ. He noticed the blink she gave him and said "Quark? Wasn't that the greedy, clumsy, desceptive, sneaky, criminal Ferrengi? The one that owned the bar?" He asked quark, trying not to show he was joking and keeping a frowned face. A shocked looked appeared on the ferrengi face.

"WHAT?! IS THAT WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT ME IN THE FEDERATION MEDIA?! I HAVE RISKED MY LIFE AND FORTUNE ON MORE THAN ONE OCCASION AND THEY CALL ME A CRIMINAL?! I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW I AM AN HONOUST BUSINESS MAN AND I HAVE..." Quark yelled In virtual rage. Christ interrupted him before Quark could get really angry and say things they'd all regret. With a big smile on his face Christ said:

"Hold on hold on... I was kidding, relax. I'm sorry! I didn't mean to upset you. The Federation media actually were quite praising when it came to you. And so they should, If what they write is true.

Not only is your brother the inventor of the selfreplicating mines that kept Dominion reinforcements out of the Alpha Quadrant long enough for the federation to survive, but you were part of the resistance on the station during the dominion occupation. You saved your Grand Nagus on several occasions and led the, to my knowledge first and only Ferrengi Commando force ever into Dominion controlled territory and resqued the Nagus's woman. You're also accredited with being the inspiration for your nephew to become the first Ferrengi to attend Starfleet academy"

"Err... Yes... Oh... Well..." Quark stumbled as he realized he'd been had, and Christ even thought he could see the Ferrengi blush.

Quark's thoughts were not really happy though. The extent of the knowledge this humaan had about the things that had happened to Quark the past years had surprised him. He thought his name must have been mentioned somewhere, but this ment that Jake had received a lot more details from Nog and Rom than he'd been comfortable with.

The fact that they had made him out to be a hero made Quark even more uncomfortable. He was so used to be made to look like the bad guy that he was very comfortable in that role. "Well Don't you forget it!" he stated as firm as he could to Christ and turned his attention to Ezri.

"What can I get you today?" he asked her. "Raktajino... no wait... Synthale... no, tea, or maybe a cola? Oh, I don't know, since I've been joined I haven't been able to make up my mind about anything! Well, I guess I don't want anything right now" She decided. Quark rolled up his eyes and let out a sigh. "I hope you someday will be able to make up your mind again" Quark replied and skipped off to serve someone else.

"Well, you must be on the same ship I am." Ezri suddenly said to Christ. "Why do you say that?" Christ asked. "Well, youre due for the same meeting I am, where I'll be informed of my new assignment. I suppose so will you." She simply replied.

The two officers talked some more, enjoying their conversation, until it was time to go to the meeting room.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Meeting.

As the door swished open the two saw they were the first ones in. The oval table was equipped with 10 computer displays. One larger viewscreen was placed on the wall. Christ took the place 2nd from the head of the table. He excpected to be seeded next to the Captain, who'd be next to the admiral. Ezri left one seat in between him and her. She was going to say something to Christ but did not get that chance.

The door swished open and an Admiral stepped into the room. "Admiral on deck!" Christ yelled, and stood to attention. "At easy Ca.. Commander, Lt. Commander" he replied, as the admiral took up the seat at the head of the table. "Commander, would you please move one seat closer?" he asked Christ. Puzzled he complied and moved one seat. He now sat next to the Admiral... a Captains seat... Christ did not have much time to ponder that thought.

One by one the other attendees came in. Each came in with a very surprised look on their faces, and the persons present all looked equally surprised as each attendee came in. Their racial diversity was remarkable to say the least.

First a Bajorran came in. A rather large man, of about middle age, and with a Bourgondian belly. "That must be the Lt. Commander that served on the intrepid class vessel Rising Sun..." Christ thought. The vessel had been able to fight itself out of a skirmish agains 4 Galondon class vessels destroying 3 and capturing one. A tactically legendary achievement, accredited to the tactical officer of the vessel. The tactics he used were hastily made mandatory reading at Starfleet Acadamy. The chapter in the book was called Odu Tactics.

Right behind the Bajorran were two other officers coming through the door locked in intense conversation. The Leutenant from Starfleet medical stepped into the room first, followed by another Leutenant. They both looked very unfamiliar to all present.

Both were the only ones of their respective races, the Dewordians and the Peljanites to be in Starfleet. They both took a seat besides each other. They continued their conversation oblivious to their surroundings, until they noticed the admiral. "At ease Leutenants, the meeting hasn't started yet, not everyone is here yet."

Then a Betazoid came in. "Councellor Lucyanna Troi reporting as ordered sir" She staded at attention. "Take a seat councelor. We'll be starting this briefing as soon as everyones here" the admiral said.

Then the door opened one more time. This time a trio stepped in. A human, a Cardassian and a Vulcan came into the room. "Take a seat gentlemen" the Admiral cut of the Commander before he could say a word. The present officers couldn't help being amazed at the sight of the trio that came in. A human and a Vulcan together with a Cardassian, in Starfleet uniform? Amazing!

The Admiral stood up and looked all attendees in the eyes one by one. With a loud voice intended to get everyones undevided attention he then spoke.:

"So! Lets get this meeting underway shall we?!" He paused a second and then continued:"

"Ladies and Gentlemen, today your lives change!

Starfleet has reevaluated it's view on keeping the Federation safe and out of costly wars like we've seen lately. This evaluation was made because of todays political situation in the quadrant and beyond.

The Romulans, our allies during the Dominion war have retreated back across the Neutral zone, informing us the status of relations between us and them will return to pre-war status. This means that apart from the losses both we and the romulans suffered fighting the Breen/Dominion/Cardassian Alliance absolutely nothing changed between the two powers.

Intelligence also indicates that in the Romulan empire the industrie is still in wartime production, producing massive amounts of weapons. The Romulans claim they are rebuilding their fleet to prewar strength. We all know however that Romulans have deceived everyone who ever came into contact with at least once.

The Klingons may have found a new respect for us as warriors, but they shall always remain a threat to anyone they perseave as weak. This, and the by defenition unstable political situation in the Klingon empire makes it the second power Starfleet has to be prepared to face if needed.

The Federation is a very large terrirory to protect. Not only the main federation space needs protection, but also the federation territories around Deneb, Antares and Rigel deserve the same level of protection as, for example, Earth or any other federation member. The Federation needs to have a force available in those remote regions, that is equal to the size of federations space it must defend. Currently that would mean that Starfleet needs a complete autonomous Starfleet in all 4 or 5 of the regions.

Even though the Dominion in this quadrant has been defeated, we can be sure the Gamma Quadrant's Dominion forces are as powerful as ever. The founders, now having obtained a cure for their disease, will have undoubtedly maintained their absolute power over the Dominion empire.

Starfleet has to consider the view most founders have of "solids" which is not comforting I can assure you. Even though we have no direct indications or even expect the dominion to pose a threat to us anytime soon, Starfleet feels it needs to be prepared for it anyway.

The last confrontation with the Borg has cut off, as far as we know, all their shortcuts to our part of the Galaxy. This, the destruction of the queen (maybe one of many) and the infection of the hive with the pathogen by Capt. Janeway has won the last battle we had with the Borg.

This however in no way ensures us they are not as strong as ever in the Delta Quadrant, and as determined as ever to assimilate all of the Galaxy, especially sector 001... Earth! It may even be that the recent encounter has put us on the top of their to assimilate lists.

As the Delta Quadrant is very far away, Starfleet doesn't feel the Borg pose an immediate threat, but seeing the difficulty we had battling 1 or 3 Borg vessels, we have a lot of problems coming our way when the main force arrives. If and when that will happen we cannot know. We do know the Borg are very good at adapting. We need to find out, what the current condition and intent of the Borg is.

After carefull deliberation, Starfleet has decided she cannot risk it's continued existence by depending on her neighbours to fight besides her agains the threats the future may bring. It must be able to counter any threat by her own means.

Starfleet must therefore aquire a larger fleet, more powerfull offensive as well as defencive weaponary and a larger range for intelligence gathering." Starfleet now realizes it's sise causes her neighbours to look to Starfleet to enforce peace in the region. This is a responsabillity Starfleet must and will take seriously."

"To summarise:

The Borg attacks, the Dominion war, and the continued threat of being surrounded by Empires that in the past sought to conquer the Federation has made Starfleet aware that it needs to accept that in some cases brute force, or the ability to use it, is the only thing keeping the peace."

During the admirals speech the audience had listened to it in awe. The speech made I big impression on all present. The admiral looked around at each of the officers faces, and after a moment of silence he continued to speak.

"I'd like you to read an exerpt of a highly classified Starfleet engeneering document. It contains a summery of new technologies, which you will find interesting. I must remind you that highly classified means you are not allowed to discuss it even amongst yourself until further notice. I'd also like to ask you to refraim from commenting or asking questions until the end of the meeting."

As the Admiral finished his sentence the displayes started showing a document. Everyone started reading.

TECHNOLOGICAL LISTING SUMMARY FOR USSc SHAKE DESIGN

Phase cloaking and matter phasing.

Shifts atoms out of phase with the rest of the Galaxy. All atoms origionating from this Galaxy are phasing in a certain frequency. This device can shift the phase of evey atom on this ship and everything it can hit with the phase beam. This causes the atoms to become invisible to sensors, as they do not exist in a certain kind of way. This also enables the ship and everything/everyone on it to be able to move through solid matter. This matter so to speak doesn't exist either to the ship. The ship and everyone phased can see everything in normal phase through specially adapted sensors, camera's and if needed, glasses. This technology has been Covertly obtained from the Romulan Star Empire's Tall Shihar, and modified into a perfected operational technology. It will be standard on all Intellegence vessels in design

Klingon/Romulan/Jem'Hadar cloaking technology

Combining the finer points of each races approach on cloaking technology. It's resulted in a cloaking device that is undetectable by any of the forenamed races and the races that cannot detect those races. The greater advance it brought is in detection of cloaked vessels. All vessels using cloaking technology similar to the ones Starfleet has encountered to date can be detected by this device.

The Phase cloak is ofcourse the ultimate cloaking device, which might once render these kind of cloaks useless one day. It however does require an extreme amount of energy even for a ship with the sise and power as the Shake. Therefore the 'normal' cloak will be the default cloak at all times until this failes. It will always remain available if the long range sensors are undamaged, as they are tied into each other as well as with the U.A.D.S.A.

Ultra Advanced Detection Sensor Array.

The different races we have been allied with have provided us with their detection sensor technologies. We have also picked up design specifications from the races we have defeated. Those technologies have been combined by Starfleet and enhanced where possible to form the most advanced powerfull detection array ever. The range of the long range sensors and the scope of detectable information is more than 100 fold the most advanced so far. Detection of objects, anomalies, and fenomenon is unprecedented. The array is simply called UADSA in short. It requires one bridge officer to operate at maximum efficiency.

Phaser/Disruptor/fp beam Arrays.

The phasertechnologies, and disruptor technologies of all the formentioned races have been adapted and perfected into new designs for both. This vessel however is the first to be able to combine the 2 into one beam we call a phase disruptor. The beam has the properties of a phaserbeam and a disruptor beam, enhancing eachothers destructive capabilities.

The forced plasma beam arrays on the vessel are origionally of Ferengi design, and also used by the borg. Enhanced and made more accurate for the Shake they provide the overkill where needed after firing phasers/disruptors. The shields on most vessels/structures will not even bother the forced plasma beams.

Torpedoes/missles.

Along with the familiar phonton and quantum torpedoes the USS Shake has 4 flux torpedoe capable launch tubes. This technology is new, and of Starfleet design. It causes the target's atoms to go into ultra high flux, shaking themselves loose from whatever atom they are attached to. The result I think needs no further explanation.

Allthough torpedoes could be called missiles generally spoken missiles mean smaller powered projectiles. The USS Shake, being a large target needs defence agains torpedoes fired at it as well as the capability to hit smaller targets. For that purpose it has been fitted with the shake missile. The shake missile is in fact a small flux torpedoe. The torpedoe for large area's, the shake missle for smaller. The effective radius of disintergration is about 50cm. This missile is also fitted onto all other vessels carried by the Shake.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The biggest surprises come last.

The admiral looked at the assembled officers. He smiled as he saw the amazement, exitement and disbelief on the faces of the officers. He liked breaking big news in a shocking way. Now it was time to have some of that fun with one of the two commanders... or maybe even both.

"You have all been assembled here because you will be in command of this vessel" the Admiral announced pointing at the larger viewscreen on the wall which now showed a view of a very large vessel. "The ship has been designed to be the largest force that Starfleet can bring to bair in history."

"The design has been kept hughly classified and even our allies don't know it ever was designed. The ship is being built in the New Antares Shipyards."

Before I tell you all your respective assignments I assure you that even though you might feel you have been misassigned, either to the wrong duties or the wrong station, you are not. Starfleet has selected you all for very good reasons and assigned you with carefull consideration of each's personality and each's capabilities. If you feel you have been missasigned, please go through proper channels and submit an official complaint." The admiral stated as if he would take it personal if someone complained.

"Very well... Commander Falo Itarac." The admiral called out. Falo stood up and stood to attention, expecting to be promoted to captain. He'd been commander long enough, serving as first officer onboard 8 different classes of starships before coming here. The admiral continued: "You shall be first officer of the USS Shake, and you will Captain the USS Dutch, one of the vessels carried by the Shake." He said to the commander, handing him the padd containing the official orders. He understated the description of the USS Dutch deliberately.

It was a vessel very similar in sise to the Interpid class starship, although it bears more firepower. Falo Itarac had served on an intrepid class for the last year.

Besides sise the difference lay in the technology aboard, and the fact that the vessel was not only a vessel but basically part of another vessels hull.

Falo did not look at the orders, but merely stood frozen. He hadn't heard a word after first officer, realizing he wasn't going to be captain. He mumbled a quick "Yes sir" and sat down disillusioned. The Admiral had some difficulty holding down his smile. He knew the commander wanted a captains seat, he also knew that the commander would turn around as soon as he read the specs on both Shake and Dutch. They sure were no ordinary starships.

"Lt. Commander Nesnaj Odu, you shall act as the ships Chief tactical Officer. When launched you shall be in command of the USS Authority, and the wings it commands. Here are your orders, and design specs to which you have clearance." The admiral said facing the Bajorran.

Odu had expected tactical and security to be assigned to him, but never expected to be in command of an entire vessel of any sise. Exitement and pride eminated of of the Bajorrans face as he took the PADD that the admiral offered him and uttering a "eer... yes sir admiral sir...". He sat down and looked up the specs of "his" ship.

It was one of the 2 tactical advanced defiant class vessels, carried by the Shake. The only thought in his mind was "Wow! A Tactical command battlecruiser! And two wings of five Defiants to play with to!"

The Defiant class. Espescially designed to do battle!

"Leutenant Ezri Dax, you will be chief science officer on the USS Shake. You shall also be taking command of the USS Commander and it's wings when it is launched." The admiral called out. "Here are your orders and the specs your security clearance clears you for." He said as he handed her the PADD.

She looked at the Admiral, and was going to say something but changed her mind and just said "Yes sir, thank you" and sat back down, sunk in deep thought. The years after the Dominion war hadn't brought much change in Ezri's life. After being joined, startingat (or returning to) DS9 and the Dominion War she actually liked how little her life changed. It gave her the opertunaty to process the events of that turbulent time. That was over now.

Sorry sir, I do not mean to interrupt or to be insulant, but a starships Science officers is required to hold the rank of the Vulcan suddenly spoke as the Admiral turned his face away from Ezri.

Yes mr, Treeg I am aware of that, but in contrary to you, I am not a Vulcan and therefore capable of experiencing joy out of keeping surprises for the right moment. You ve managed to spoil that opertunity for me now. Thank you! The admiral interrupted. The Vulcan pulled his eyebrow as vulcans do when they are surprised at something illogical.

The Admiral turned back to Ezri, who d not even been aware of the converstation until the silence fell and she noticed everyone staring at her. She saw the Admiral looking at her and stood up again. The admiral spoke in an official tone of voice.

As our Vulcan friend her e pointed out, a Leutenant is not allowed to hold the Chief Science officers commission on a Starfleet Vessel. As your record is exemplary and Starfleet feels you re value would be greatly enhanced by this post, you are hereby promoted to Lt. Commander with all privileges, rights and obligations the rank holds, Congratulations Dax, I know you re the right person for this job. You ll make us proud! he said to Ezri.

The meaning of it all went past Ezri. She was dazed by the realization she d no longer be on DS9 from now on. She nodded a thank you sir I;m honoured and sat back down. The Admiral looked puzzled for a moment but went on anyway.

Lt. Commander Dnevel em Leov, you are the USS Shake s Chief of Security. You shall command the 400 Starfleet Security officers on the vessel. These security officers will allso be trained in special forces techniques. You will allso oversee these trainings. Here are your orders and the new security protocolls starfleet wants you to implement.

He looked as the young Andorian twiched his antanneae and smiled. You want ME to be CHIEF security Officer on a ship THAT sise? he asked. Indeed we do. You have shown great potential during the war and afterwards you ve shown to be an excellent leader, the admiral replied, strangly, in a reassuring and fatherly tone. Dnevel took the PADD and thanked the admiral.

"Leutenant Lerak Lalbeohk, You will be the carriers chief engeneering officer. As you are deemed vital to the Carrier you shall not be assigned a vessel to command. You shall be needed to keep the vessel running and coordinate engeneering across all ships the carrier carries. You shall also be responsible for selecting and training of each vessels Chief engeneer." The admiral went on,

handing a PADD with orders and specs to the Cardassian. The Cardassion smiled and took the PADD. "Thank you sir. I am honoured." He said, sitting back down.

For Larek life had been against him from the second it started. Because he was found on a deralict Cardassian vessel by Human salvage workers he'd been raised on a Human Colony. Being the only Cardassian was difficult. It did prepare him though for Starfleet Acadamy, and later active Starfleet duty, where he also was the only Cardassian.

The Dominion War didn't make things easier offcourse. Larek never lost confidence in himself and the ideals Starfleet stood for though and this was the moment that all paid off. This vessel was every Engineers wildest dreams and more, but he and noone else was it's Chief Engeneering Officer. Larek unknowingly smiled with pride.

Through all of this time Christ had been silent, carefully examining the reaction of each person as they received their assignments. The reactions told Christ a lot about the person.

"Leutenant Nereeh Lehceim, you are to be the chief medical officer of the vessel. You will also be responsible for selecting the Medical personall for this and the other vessels" the admiral said. The Dewordian took the padd, and simply said, "Eye sir, understood" and sat down mear seconds after getting up. Christ couldn't detect any emotion in the expressions of the Dewordian. It fascinated him.

The Admiral turned to the Vulcan now.

Ensign Naj Treeg. You are hereby promoted to Lt. Junior Grade. You shall be the USS Shake s helmsman. Your exceptional skills in piloting anything that flies have not gone unnoticed. You shall also be responsible for selecting each of USS Shake s vessels helmsman and for their training scheduals. You shall coordinate those training efforts with the USS Shake s tactical officer, You shall also analise each confrontational or otherwise exceptional manouvaring of the USS Shake and come with recommendations based on the analisations. As there is no other vessel to reference with, all future crews will learn from your experiences.

The Vulcan heard the Admirals words without twitching a muscle. Yes Admiral, I will endevour to perform efficiently and logically. Thank you sir And sorry for spoiling your surprise a moment ago. Suddenly the young Vulcan smiled saying that. As vulcans never smile, everyone noticed and gasped for air . A vulcan with emotions which doesn t go completely bonkers . Unbelevable.

Christ looked at the Vulcan amazed. Since his stay on the Vulcan Vessel USS Illogic he d been fascinated by the vulcans. This one was no ordinary one.

"Lt. Jr. grade Aerd'na Ejte'llurp, you shall be communications officer and be responsible for the communications staffing on the carried vessels." The admiral had already turned his attention to the Peljanite. The Peljanite took the padd, nodded and sat back down.

"Not very talkative for a comms officer" Christ thought.

"And the next assignment today is for you, Lt. Jr. Grade Lucyanna Troi, you are the Chief councelor and in general you are responsible for all counceling related matters on all vessels. You are free to determine councelling needs in reference to personalll and material." The admiral handed the last padd to her. She also nodded and sat down. Christ was now ready to be addressed by the Admiral, wondering why he was last in line to receive his assignment.

"You now have your orders, and assignments. I suggest you now get your personal effects together and start packing. You'll be catching a ride to the Shipyards at 0100 hrs tonight with the USS Deuzige. Be ready to board at docking pylon 3 before than." The admiral continued.

At that time, Christ though the time had come to say something. "Scuse me sir, do I actually have anything to do with this?" He asked sarcasticly. The Admiral turned and looked his way. "I was wondering when you'd jump in!" he staded, looking straight into his eyes. "You must have really impressed someone in Starfleet" The admiral said with eyes twinkling as if he had a double hidden meaning in that statement.

"Commander Christian Arend van Silfhout, you are hereby promoted to the rank of Captain. This promotion is a direct result of the courage, skill and determination you showed during the Missions of the USS Neanderthall inside of enemy territory. You are hereby ordered to procede to the antaris shipyards and take command of the USSc Shake and its crew." The admiral said, with a loud voice as if making the announcement before a very large audience instead of the small assembly.

Christ looked at the admiral in disbelief. Thoughts raced through his mind: "Captain? Me, captain of the most powerfull and advanced ship in the entire known space? They've gotta be joking!"were his first thoughts. They changed real fast though "No their not! I've always known I'd be Captain. They're right! I CAN AND WILL DO THIS AND I'LL DO IT RIGHT!"

As the admiral looked into Christ's eyes he saw something change. From disbelief emenating from Christ's eyes the look changed into a new look, which read great pride and determination to succeed, and show starfleet they hadn't made a mistake by giving him this chance of a lifetime.

"Yes sir, admiral sir. And thank you sir, I will not fail." He said to the Admiral and sat down, taking the PADD and looking at it intensively. Christ never heard the last part of what went on in the meeting. He looked at the PADD, deeply In thought. As the admiral gave the standard speech for new command crews.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Though it had been classified information, the news that Ezri was leaving DS9 spread quickly and everyone close to her was aware of it. Kira had, as her commanding officer, received notification of Ezri s transfer to the Antaris Shipyards two hours before Ezri s departure.

She d noticed Ezri s name by accident on the passengers list of the USS Deuzige. Well, not accidentally, as the USS Deuzige happened to depart for the Antaris Shipyards she couldn t help but wonder if there was a connection. As she had made the connection she understood that Ezri must have been ordered to secrecy,. She wasn t so she notified Quark about it who ofcourse spread the word.

At 12:50 hrs Ezri walked out of the turbolift and rounded the corner. As she looked up she froze. Everyone who d ever ment anything to her or the Dax s other hosts and was able to come was there.

The feeling Ezri had was a mixed one. She was so relieved she was now able to officially say goodbye to everyone, and she didn t have to leave without letting everyone know she was going to be allright. The relieved feeling did in no way compensate for the feeling of sadness and loss. For the past few years her life had been unchanged.

She d been coucellor on DS9 and as such knew just about everyone closely.. She d been able to process the events that happened to her during the Dominion war, but still wasn t adjusting to joined life to well on a personall level. She d hoped she would be able to work on that now the past was behind her, in the comfort of the familiar surroundings on DS9.

As she said goodbye to Kira, Jake, Julian and Quak she realized she had to little time to say goodbye to everyone personally, so she stepped back a few paces. As the computer called the final boarding call for the USS Deuzige she spoke to everyone:

My friends, I thank you all for being here. As I was not allowed to inform anyone of anything I had feared missing the opertunity to say goodbye to all of you. DS9 and everyone in it has and will always have a special place in my heart and mind as I consider this my home, and place of origin. Jadzia enjoyed her life here the most of any place she d ever been, and so did i. Allthough I ve made promotion and am going on an undoubtedly challenging journey I am sad. Very sad. I will miss you all so much . Tears started poring down her face. Slowly at first but as emotions took over the tears began to stream.

Crying Ezri stepped onto the Deuzige, leaving everything and everyone she cared for behind. Nothing would be as it was . Ever. She felt dispear as her friends were faded out her view by de closing airlock.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Speak Freely.

As he activated the pad, containing the information he wanted to read he noticed all pads with specs or other information about the USSc Shake showed the Starfleet general orders when initially turned on. Even though he had memorized them since he was 10 years old, he read em each day at least once.

General Order 1: The Prime Directive

As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Starfleet personnel may interfere with the normal and healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes introducing superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely. Starfleet personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship, unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture. This directive takes precedence over any and all other considerations, and carries with it the highest moral obligation.

General Order 2

No Starfleet personnel shall unnecessarily use force, either collectively or individually, against members of the United Federation of Planets, their duly authorized representatives, spokespersons, or designated leaders, or members of any sentient non-member race, for any reason whatsoever.

General Order 3

The sovereignty of each Federation member being respected in all things, Starfleet personnel shall observe any and all statutes, laws, ordinances, and rules of governance currently in effect within the jurisdiction of a member planet. Violators of such ordinances will be subject to such punishments or corrections as shall be determined by local governmental bodies.

General Order 4

f contact is made with hitherto undiscovered intelligent life-forms, under no circumstance shall Starfleet personnel, either by word or deed, inform said life-forms that worlds other than their own or intelligent life-forms other than their own exist outside the confines of their own space.

General Order 5

In cases of extreme emergency, Federation special representatives are empowered to assume emergency powers to deal with a condition or circumstance that is deemed hazardous to the welfare of Federation citizenry. Within the scope of these emergency powers, duly authorized civilian personnel may assume temporary command of Starfleet vessels and/or personnel to deal with the emergency. Starfleet personnel must submit to their authority for the duration of the crisis.

General Order 6

The request for emergency assistance from Federation citizenry demands unconditional priority from Starfleet personnel. Such personnel shall immediately respond to said request, postponing all other activities.

General Order 7

No Starfleet vessel shall visit the planet Talos IV under any circumstances, emergency or otherwise. This order supersedes General Order 6. Any transgression of this general order shall be punishable by death.

General Order 8

Upon sighting a warship within Federation space and identifying it as belonging to a foreign power, the commander of the Starfleet vessel shall determine the reason(s) for that craft's presence in the vicinity. If there is conclusive evidence that the vessel has hostile intentions, the Federation vessel may take appropriate action to safeguard the lives and property of Federation members. In such cases, the commander may use his discretion in deciding whether to use force to disable the hostile vessel. However, care should be taken to avoid unnecessary loss of sentient life.

General Order 9

No commander of a Starfleet vessel, military or auxiliary, may grant political asylum to any individual without first being given express permission to do so by a representative of the Federation government.

General Order 10

If there exists eyewitness testimony by senior officers or similar verifiable evidence that an individual has violated the Prime Directive, said individual may be relieved of duty by a duly sworn representative of the Federation government and placed under immediate arrest. The governmental representative shall then take such action as he deems necessary to minimize the results of the violation.

General Order 11

Starfleet officers with the rank of captain or higher are granted full authority to negotiate conditions of agreement and/or treaties with legal representatives of non-Federation planets. In such circumstances, the acting officer carries de facto powers of a Federation Special Ambassador. Any and all agreements arranged in this manner are subject to approval by the Chief of Starfleet Operations and the Secretary of Starfleet.

General Order 12

Federation officers may violate Neutral Zone areas as designated by treaty only if such action is required to save the lives of Federation citizens under conditions of extreme emergency.

General Order 13

Except when orders state to the contrary, Starfleet personnel will respect the territorial integrity of independent planetary systems and governments, and will not violate territorial space belonging to such worlds.

General Order 14

Starfleet personnel may intervene in local planetary affairs to restore general order and to secure the lives and property of Federation citizens only upon receiving a direct order to do so from a civilian official with the title of governor or higher.

General Order 15

No officer of flag rank shall travel into a potentially hazardous area without suitable armed escort.

General Order 16

Starfleet personnel may extend technological, medical, or other scientific assistance to a member of a previously unrecognized sentient species only if such assistance in no way compromises the Prime Directive or the security of the Federation or Starfleet.

General Order 17

Starfleet vessel captains are to consider the lives of their crew members as sacred. In any potentially hostile situation, the captain will place the lives of his crew above the fate of his ship.

General Order 18

"Upon being accused of treason against the Federation, Starfleet personnel may demand a trail conducted by the Federation judiciary". If the individual is acquitted, Starfleet Command shall have no further legal recourse against the accused in said matter.

General Order 19

Except in times of declared emergency, Starfleet personnel may under no circumstances convey personnel or material between planets or planetary systems when there is reason to believe that said personnel or material may be used to conduct aggression. This order applies to independent worlds within the Federation as well as to Federation members.

General Order 20

Officers and personnel of Starfleet Command may employ whatever means necessary to prevent the possession, transportation, sale, or commercial exchange of sentient beings held against their wishes within the boundaries of Federation space.

General Order 21

No Starfleet personnel, either officer or enlisted, may offer his services to an independent foreign government without the express authorization of the Federation Assembly.

General Order 22

As the rights of individual expression and free discourse are considered sacred, Starfleet personnel may debate the policies and decisions of their governmental representatives privately at any time, to the extent that such discussions do not violate their command oath or specific duties to the Federation per these General Orders or Starfleet regulations.

General Order 23

When verifiable proof is presented to the senior commanding officer of a Starfleet vessel or post that a Federation representative may currently be acting or have acted in the past to violate the Prime Directive, the officer may relieve said representative of office, then assume the full powers of that office pending a full investigation by governmental officials.

General Order 24

If a commanding officer deems that an individual or group of individuals pose a threat to Starfleet personnel or Federation civilians, he may take any action deemed necessary (including force) to secure the safety of those threatened.

General Order 25

Civilian and military personnel taken into custody by Starfleet personnel during times of extreme emergency shall be accorded proper treatment consistent with their rank or station, insofar as such treatment does not compromise the security of the Federation or Starfleet.

General Order 26

No member of a ship's complement or other ground-based installation can be held directly accountable for the actions of their superiors. Similarly, no member of a ship's company or other Starfleet personnel will share in disciplinary measures taken against the commanding officer(s) if said individuals were not directly involved in the actions leading to disciplinary measures. This order extends to conditions involving proven violations of the Prime Directive, where proof of such violations exist.

General Order 27

No member of Starfleet shall be required by the assignment of standard duties and responsibilities to undergo extended separation from his family, if family members can be reasonably provided for aboard ship or as a part of an existing Starfleet installation.

General Order 28

No officer of command rank shall be removed from command status unless such action has the complete and unqualified agreement of at least three senior officers present. Whenever possible, such officers shall include the ship's First Officer, Chief Medical Officer, Counselor, and one junior officer of command station.

General Order 29

The primary responsibility of the commander of any Starfleet vessel or installation is the welfare and safety of his crew, including any civilian members. No action may be taken that creates an unwarranted threat to the safety of those individuals under the officer's charge, except in the line of duty and when otherwise unavoidable.

General Order 30

Starfleet Command recognizes the right of each ship commander to interpret the specifications of the Prime Directive as he sees fit, consistent with the conditions of other existing general orders in effect, and based upon circumstances that may arise in dealing with newly discovered sentient races.

General Order 31

The conditions and specifications of the Prime Directive shall henceforth apply to all sentient lifeforms discovered, whether they are of natural or artificial origin.

General Order 32

Except in the case of an extreme emergency, no Starfleet commander is authorized to order his ship to travel faster than Warp Factor Five without express permission from Starfleet Command.

The Omega Directive

The Omega Directive was created to deal with a threat not only to the Federation, but to the entire Alpha Quadrant; and indeed the whole Galaxy. Starfleet named the hazard the Omega molecule/particle phenomenon. It was first synthesized over 100 years ago (during the mid-22nd century,) by a Starfleet physicist named Ketteract. The molecule created was the most powerful substance known to exist. A single Omega molecule contains the same energy as a warp core. It has been suggested that in theory, a small chain could sustain a civilization. It is not known whether Ketteract was searching for an inexhaustible power source, or a weapon. He created a single molecule particle of Omega, which lasted for only a fraction of a second before it de-stabilized. His work was done on a classified research center in the Lantaru Sector. Ketteract and 126 of the Federation's leading scientists, were lost in the accident. Rescue teams attempting to reach the site, discovered an unexpected secondary effect. There were subspace ruptures extending out several light years. To this day, it is impossible to create a stable warp field in that sector. It can only be traversed under sublight power. This is the danger of the Omega molecule. Omega destroys subspace. A chain reaction could devastate subspace throughout the quadrant. Space-faring civilization would no longer exist, and many lives would be lost in space. When Starfleet learned of this impending danger, it suppressed all knowledge of the Omega phenomenon. Only Starfleet Captains and Federation Flag Officers may view this document.

Directive: Starfleet Captains and Federation Flag Officers must ensure the safety of the quadrant from the Omega threat. To this end, whenever sensors positively determine the presence of Omega in a ship's vicinity it will enter "Omega Mode." Doing so locks all navigation, sensor, tactical and propulsion systems. Only the ship's Captain, or a Federation Flag Officer can release the Omega lockout. Access to sensor data retrieved on the Omega effect is limited to Clearance Level 10. When Omega has been verified, the ship's captain will contact Starfleet Command immediately. No information may be relayed to the ship's crew. All other priorities are rescinded until the threat is neutralized. The prime directive may be compromised during such a mission, if necessary. Blatant abuse of this power will be prosecuted to the fullest extent using all other Starfleet Directives. If violation of the prime directive is even minimally anticipated, it is authorized and advised. If Starfleet Command cannot be contacted for any reason, the primary priority is the destruction of all Omega molecules detected. There will be no computer record of the sensor logs, and Captain's/Captain's Personal Logs must be either encrypted or deleted.

After he read this and pressed a padbutton th ships specs were opened. He started reading the section he had been reading last time,

Reading through the specs he couldn't help but wonder how Starfleet intelligence had managed to keep a ship this sise a secret. As he wondered that, an uneasy feeling crept up on him. He knew a little about the relationships between the UFP and it's allies.

The alliance was one born of need rather than of good relations. Neither party in the alliance trusted any of the other parties allthough there was a newfound respect by the Klingons for the Federation.

The Romulans had made it clear that as soon as the war was over the relation between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire would return to the old state. The old borders still applied. Christ knew this allso ment that the T'all Shi'har would allso be maintaining it's intelligence operations inside the federation. The T'all Shi'har was in effect the most advanced, and best intelligence agency in known space. It would be next to impossible to keep a vessel of this sise from being discovered by the Romulans.

The Cardassian Obsidian order used to be equal to the T'all Shi'har, but after their defeat the obsidian order was no more. Now, Cardassians were even allowed to attend starfleet acadamy, and it was only a matter of time until the Cardassians joined the United Federation of Planets. As remarkable this may have sounded before the war, now it seemed their only option.

The war left the Cardassian empire in pieces. The Jem'Hadar had used the ancient russian strategy, destroying anything that might be deemed usefull when they retreated towards cardassia prime. The final battle, in which the founders ordered the Jem'Hadar to destroy as much of Cardassia and Cardassians as possible cost the Cardassians millions, if not hundreds of million lives. In fact, the population on cardassia had been reduced to only 40% of the total before the war. They had no choice but to except the help the UFP was offering them, using the Marschall plan strategy for rebuilding the Economy and infrastructure of the cardassians.

Christ cleared the PADD's screen and brought up the general description of the USSc Shake s design goals.

"This vessel has been designed to provide the UFP with the means to establish and maintain a precense of starfleet in area's that precense does not yet exist.

The Federation of Planets is in essence a main island, surronded by some 3 orther "federation islands" Surrounded by and surrounding the main empires of our region of space. There is main federation space, the Antaris island, and for example the deneb island. Together they span over 8000 light years. Each area in its own is no larger than 500 or 600 lightyears across. The federation is intending to be able to pick up and counter any threat in any of those area's.

In light of the Cardassion joining of the federation a lot of new starbases and outposts need to be built, establishing the Federations authority there. This sometimes needs to be done in a hostile environment. The USSc Shake is designed to establish that kind of precense in any, including hostile, situation. The USSc Shake is able to, in essence, take control of an entire sector. Either just by being there or, if nessecary, by conquering it. The role is very simular to the role the old seabearing carriers did in the late 20th early 21st century."

Christ had read that piece of text 10 times over. He still could'nt understand the change in Starfleets posture and behaviour. Before the war, starfleet wouldn't have even considered a design like this.

The design could be described in a number of ways, but the all came down to the same basic realisation. This vessel was designed to fight and win, against any enemy and take whatever that enemy has for the federation. Not even the Klingons or the Borg would be able to defeat a number of vessels like the Shake, and it enables the Federation to become a conquering force...

As he was reading Christ hadn't noticed the door chime. When he finally did he yelled, louder than he'd intended to: "Come in for cryin' out loud!".

The door swooshed open and there was Ezri. "Hi Captain, are we a little tense?" she said. "Sorry about that Ezri, I've been going through some documents here and I'm not sure I'm happy with what I read." He apologized. "Well, can I have a word with you?" she asked. "Go right ahead, you're my science officer, we'll be having a lot of words in the future I guess" he said with a smile he himself noticed to late.

Ezri hold down her smile as she saw it. She enjoyed the extraprofessional attention the new Captain seemed to have for her. "To be quite honest sir..." She started as Christ interrupted. "We'll be spending a lot of time talking, and I think we'll make it easier on both of us if we're on first name basis when we're off duty" he said. "Well, I am here to talk about what could be described as business. You see, I'm not sure I am right for the position of Chief Sciense officer on such a big important vessel.".

Christ let that sink in and thought about it for a second. "Well, first of all, I know about your problems adjusting to joined life. Allthough you have difficulty deciding what you like, you do have the life experience of 9 people now, and a few of them were scientists. You have proven you are a valuable officer and make the right descisions just as long as they don't involve personal preference. I am proud and lucky to have you as my science officer and have every confidence in your ability to perform your duties as such." Christ said as Ezri sat down across the table from him.

He looked at her reaction to his words to see if they'd done any good. Her eyes became bitter sweet and looked at him as if they belonged to a little girl that had just got a present. Christ continued swiftly as he felt she could read his thoughts even though he knew she couldn't. "besides that Ezri, the Admiral was pretty clear on the definitivity of the assignments. I think that even I cant undo them, and we'll just have to do our duties." He said. "I would really hate to loose you." He added.

"Thank you for the vote of confidence, I really appreciate it. Deep down I knew that already, I just have a hard time keeping my confidence." Ezri softly said to Christ. Christ at this point had a hard time to, though it hadn't that much to do with selfconfidence. Christ was having problems remembering he was the woman's Captain and he couldn't do what he wanted to do: Take her in his arms and tell her he was gonna take care of her. "Well, my door is always open for you, if I can do anything..." He paused to let that word sink in "Please don't hesitate to come to me..." he finished.

She got up and walked to him. He stood as well, and before he knew what was going on she put her arms around him and hugged him real tight "Thank you Christ, you've helped me a lot already." She whispered and then let go. She had bright "joyeyes" as Christ called them. Eyes from which could be read the owner was enjoying something.

Christ was puzzled, but had no time to think. Before he knew it she had walked off, turned around to look at Christ's puzzled face quickly, and the door had shut behind her. Christ was now baffled, and happy she wasn't here anymore. He must have a really telltale face by now. He sat back down and wondered about Ezri until he fell asleep, not thinking about the Shake at all anymore.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Action!

Christ had been learning all he could about the USS Shake now for the past three weeks. It had been a comfortable trip so far on the USS Deuzige, a Galaxy class vessel. On their way to the Antaris shipyards the USS Deuzige stopped on a few locations to pick up crew.

The stops were in Quatal. Betazed, Deep Space 3, and Deep Space 5. He d also been getting the new crew to get to know each other. This was working pretty well. The simulations, dinners, and workouts they did together on his orders were becoming more of a soscial gathering every time.

Life on the Galaxy class is good when you re not on duty. One of the places Christ loved to be when he was studying PADDS was 10 forward. Here on this ship a nausican (of all races!) was running the bar. On one of such day s, about 5 weeks into the journey Falo came into the bar and walked up to Christ.

May I join you Captain? he asked as Christ noticed him. Ofcourse Falo, have a seat. He replied. The nausican came by and placed Falo s drink in front of him. He d been wondering how the nausican managed to remember everyone s favorite drink.

What s on your mind Falo Christ asked. He had noticed the ackward look in Falo s eyes, He already knew what Falo wanted to talk about. Well, sir, permission to speak freely? he asked. Ofcourse Falo, you want to talk about why you were passed by for the Captain s chair . Christ replied with a smile on his face.

A puzzled look came upon Falo s face, How did you know I wanted to talk about that? He asked. Elementary my dear Falo, Elementary! Christ replied. An even more puzzled look appeared on Falo s face. A belly lough burst from Christ as he saw the look. Hahahaa . Sorry, but the look on your face is very humorous.. Christ said after he d regained his composure.

Nah, to be honoust, I d be asking the same question, and our councellor notified me you d been unhappy during the briefing, and disappointed. I can put two and two together. Christ explained.

Falo looked at Christ, loughed and said Okay then, if you know what I want to know, tell me Why? Though Christ had been expecting this question he thought carefully about how to explain the reason as he saw it.

Remember the mission on which you were sent to destroy a tetracil white convoy in the Dominion War. The one where you encountered a new Jem Hadar interceptor? he asked Falo. Falo thought about it for a second, Then he remembered the one Christ had ment. Falo had been commended for his actions.

After the interceptor had wrecked havoc among the 3 intrepid class vessels in the federation strike, he d beamed aboard the interceptor, disabled the 6 man crew, and set the warpcore of the vessel into warpcore breach. After that, destroying the rest of the convoy was a piece of cake. Your actions, on that mission, though you received a recommendation for the bravoury and the lives you saved, is also probably why you r e still first officer. Christ stated.

After a moment of silence Christ decided to explain further. You saved the 3 starfleet vessels, yes. And Yes you destroyed the interceptor. Yes you destroyed the convoy and completed the mission. But did you ever stop to think you d be even more successful if you d taken the vessel you d captured and take it for Starfleet to examine? Christ said.

Would you have? Falo asked as a look of understanding came over his face. Yes I would and .

KABOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Red alert sirens started whining and red lights started flashing everywhere. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!? Falo yelled after he d picked himself up out of the corner. I DON T KNOW! FOLLOW ME TO THE BRIDGE! Christ yelled back trying to make himself heard over the sirens. Then the sirens stopped.

Running towards the bridge, Christ tapped his communicator. Captain Christ van Silfhout to Cpt. Justdied .. Silfhout to bridge come in No answer came back. As they got to the turbolift they had to wait until a damage repair crew got in first. We can get as far as deck 11, from there we ll have to take the jeffries tubes. Come on men, the whole bridge is gone, we ve got to seal the hole it left! one of the repair crew said to the others as the door swished closed. The two stood frozen for a second.

Come on, let s get to the Battle Bridge, maybe we can supplement the command crew in places they ve got casualties. Could you allso contact the others, and tell them to come to the battlebridge. Christ ordered Falo. He himself needed to find out what the hell happened.

Science, come in this is Capt. Van Silfhout . He said into the communicator. A scrachy sound acompanied the answer. This is Mi Mat idamha, Chief Engeneer. I don t think anyone from the bridge crew or of the nightshift is alive. The change of shifts was just taking place sir. I suspect you re the senior officer on this ship now. A voice stated.

Thank you Chief, Can you patch my communicator through to a shipwide channel? Christ asked. Yes sir, .done. You can now speak sir. The engeneer replied. Christ took a deap breath, and spoke the words again, he remembered saying so well, and the sadness that came with them..

This is Christ van Silfhout .. Capt. Van Silfhout. As it appears all seniour and junior bridge officers are now dead I am assuming command of this vessel. Please send in damage and casualty reports to the battle bridge. Don t try to worrie to much people. Whatever happened, it happened to the only Starfleet vessel that carries 2 complete bridge crews, so we ll be double as able to meat whatever challenge it is. Christ spoke. As he d finished he realised how idiotic the last centance had sounded.

Ok sir, your off the shipwide channel now. Sir, the command protocolls are now being rerouted to the battle bridge. You ll be able to transferr the command codes to yourself usingf the theta authorisation in seconds. Except for the bridge all ships sections and systems are working at optimal efficiency. If I were a tactical officer I d warn you for a boarding party attempting to . Captain, I ve got two boarding parties beaming in through our shields. One is in front of my doors now, and one is heading to the battle bridge. The engeneer said over the comm.

Captain, this is Nesnaj, I ve checked and as luck has it, 40 of my new security officers hiched a ride with the Deuzige as well. I ve allready ordered them to get ready. I ll send them to the engeneering and battlebridge area s. I ve allso been able to set up a security office in my quarters here, and patched internal sensors here. It appears our guests are Klingon and numbering only 20 in all.

A smile came across Christs face as he entered the battlebridge. Except for Odu Nesnaj all of his crew was there allready. Noone from the origional senior or junior bridge officers were there. Nesnaj, can you transfer security to the battle bridge and come here yourself as well? We re all missing you. Christ said through the comm.

Sir, the boarding parties are now both pinned down. The positions though would mean that an assault on them would defenately cost many lives on our part, and kill of the boarding parties mentioned. I mean, as they are Klingons. The voice of Ezri sounded. Christ looked at them as they looked to him. This would be his first command desiscion before this crew he suddenly realiserd.

Nesnaj, are you in control of the security lockouts for short range inship transprots? He asked. As I am currently in the turbolift sir I cannot, but I have transferred all authorisations to the tactical station on the bridge. The answer came. Christ went to the panel and punched in a few keys. Security, I m now beaming the boarding parties to the brigg and removing their weapons in transit. Go to the brigg and secure the prisoners. Christ ordered through his commbadge.

Sir, I ve got a decloacking Klingon Destroyer, powering up it s weapons, Ezri yelled from science. At that point Nesnaj came in and took his place at the tactical station.

Okay people, let s do this right. Christ said. At that point the councellor Lucyanna Troi came in as well. Perfect timing councellor, I was just about to call the attackers.

3 photon torpedoes were fired from the Klingon vessel sir! Nesnaj Called. Naj Treeg! Evasive manouvvers now! Christ yelled. Brace for impact!

At the same time he spoke the words the ship shook violently. Shields holding at 95% sir. Whatever they hit us with to knock out the bridge was no torpedoe however. Even wirhout shields, the damage would not have been as sergical as it is Nesnaj said.

Lecheim, open channel christ said. Channel open sir, no response though

Klingon vessel, this is Captain Christ van Silfhout of the USS Deuzige. Ceise and desist your attack on this vessel emediately or be destroyed. Your boarding parties are in custady. You have violated just about every treaty between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, and in acordance with the treaties you ve just violated so blatently I herby place you under arrest. Lower your shields, and power down the vessel now in preperation of our boarding parties! Christ spoke as fermly as he could.

Then he added in Klingon: Hiv sIbI mev. TIjwI ghom vIchen moH. NIqop. Q onoS nIqem. NIHup. As he finished he noticed everyone looking at him. The answer came swiftly. It came from Nesnaj however.

Incoming photon torpedoes. 4 of them. They are allso firing what seems like an oversised forced plasma cutter simular to the ones used to develop the USS Shakes forced plasma beams. Again the USS Deuzige shook violently. Lock Phasers on the new plasma cutter emittor on the Klingon and fire, lock all torpedoe tubes and fire as well Christ yelled.

Nesnaj, how many security officers can you spare to go on an away mission? he asked Odu. For a few seconds he thought and replied If I can use the officers of the Deuzige s origional crew I can muster up about 100 men and women for your away mission captain. Christ turned to Ezri.

How many people are aboard that vessel? Ezri smiled as she answered with a beginning understanding of what he was up to Only 46 left sir, they d sent 60 of their warriors in the boarding parties. The destroyers full complament is 956 hoever sir. Seems they are a skeleton crew.

right. Falo! Take as much security personall as Nesnaj can spare without compromising the security with the Klingons in the brigg. Take them in a few shuttles to the edge of their shields. I have noticed their shields go down to 9% as they fire their plasma cutter beam. This is not enough to beam through but with the shields set to 117% you can get through with the shuttles. From the shuttles you can then beam onto the Klingon destroyer from within their shields. Nesnaj, go with him, and lead the second shuttle. Take the vessel if possible, destroy it if not.

Naj Treeg, I ll reroute power to the rear shields as we pass right over the top. As soon as the torpedoes and phasers have fired pull up so our rear is exposed. This maneuver should coincide with the moment the shuttles reach their destination, near the destroyers s shields.

Christ looked around to see that Falo and Nesnaj had already left. Ezri had beaten him to it and rerouted the shield power already. In the time it took to get the shuttles launched the destroyer and the Deuzige were involved in a deadly dance.

The destroyer attempting to hit the Galaxy class with the plasma beam and their photon torpedoes, and the Galaxy twisting and turning to keep out of the beam and into a good position to launch the shuttles.

Then 4 shuttles suddenly shot out of the Deuzige s shuttle bays and emediately it turned and swooped down on the destroyer, It fired all torpedoes and phasers on it, hitting it s shields. The destroyer answered by firing it s plasma beam as expected, allowing the shuttles through it s shields.

The plasma beam hit the Deuzige with a vengeance though, cuttling of a huge slice of it s left nuycell and a big slice of the saucersection. Emerency force fields were all that kept the deuzige from flying apart.

The damage to the USS Deuzige was extensive as you can see!

On the battlebridge the damage was extensive. Part of the ceiling had come down but miraculously there were no injuries on the battlebridge, Though a relief, Christ soon realized that the battlebridge may be the only place where there were no casualties. If Falo and Nesnaj were to fail He shrugged of the thought as another one came in his brain.

EZRI! WHERE ARE YOU! EZRI! Christ yelled. From below a small pile of metal some movement could be heard, Then the pile moved. I am so damn lucky the building materials are so light! Ezri s voice could be heard. Then her face appeared from the pile. She stood up and smiled at Christ. Thanks for worrying! she said. Can you get me some info on the boarding parties? he asked, hoping to mask his real reasons for yelling out so uncontrolled when he saw Ezri s console empty.

Yes sir, I ll get right on it she answered as she went to her console. She wiped clear the controls and display and punched In some codes. As she was answering the comms officer broke the silence. Sir, Commander Itarac and Lt. Commander Odu report victory sir. The Klingon vessel is under our control and all Klingon survivors are in custady. He reported.

A great chear went up muffling the latter part of the report and only Christ seemed to hear it, Casualties are light sir, 7 dead, 8 injured. All original crew sir. It hit Christ like a ton of bricks, He had sent people to their deaths before but they were people that knew him, That were people who could decide for themselves if he was worth following to their deaths. These 7 never knew Christ, and Christ never knew them. Somehow that hit Christ harder, instead of less hard as one would expect.

He regained his composure as he noticed the crew staring at him for not cheiring, Falo, Nesnaj, secure the vessel. Mr. Idamha start repairs on essential systems at once. We need a report on ships status asap. Lerak, you ll beam aboard the destroyer as soon as it s safe and start putting a report together on it s status, We might hitch a ride on it. Mr. Lecheim inform Starfleet of our little adventure, and ask for instructions. Mrs. Ejtellurp start assisting the ships doctor in medical and when done, see what you can do for the injured klingons. They ll wanna die but that s no option. Christ spewed out the orders. I ll be I n my quarters. Staff meeting in 2 hours in the battle bridge ready room. He continued and sped off out of the battle bridge. He looked around and found he was alone. Then he fell to his knees and started shivering as he realized how close they d come to destruction with that last, provoked, plasma cutter beam hit. He wondered how many he d killed in that move.

Tough job eh? he heard a voice from behind him. He looked up to see councellor Lucyanna standing behind him. He got up to his feet and tried to regain a Captains composure. Don t worrie yourself with that around me captain. I know how you feel, and you cannot hide it from me. You and I have a connection somehow. I know what you feel as if your broadcasting it on all frequencies. As they walked through the rubble to Christ s quarters.

She looked at him with a smile as she felt he wanted to protest but realized it s futility. You did well. You saved the vessel, and all of our lives. I know it s tough, but if my guess is right youre gonna have to deal with feelings like this more often, It s a big vessel, with a lot of people we re going to. You re gonna make the desiscions for 100 s instead of a few dozen. This is just a pretaste of what can happen when you re commanding this vessel. But don t worrie, I ll keep a close eye on you. Lucyanna said and they both sat down. Very well. How d I do? Emotionally speaking. Christ asked,

You ve performed better than average in that situation. Falo wouldn t have made it though. I don t think he s up to the task. He s still to much preoccupied with missing the command chair. Lucyanna answered. You ve senced this when we were in battle with the Klingons? Christ asked her. No, he wasn t senced by me today, just yesterday during dinner. Lucyanna answered on a businesslike tone. Well, we had a talk about it before the attack began. I think he understands, and excepts it for now. He does have a complete hull section of his own. Christ told Lucyanna as the comm. Chime sounded. Excuse me councellor . Starfleet requires my attention. I ll talk to you at the briefing. Dismissed.

Christ turned and answered the high priority/security message.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: New Orders.

At ease! Christ said as everyone stood at attention when he entered the ready room. Everryone took a seat. Christ walked around and stood at the head of the table.

First of all I want to convey my pride on your performance during the attack. You;ve all performed well above and beyond the call of duty .. Hell, we were passengers for crying out loud. Christ said out loud.

Now, let s get to the matters at hand. Larek, what s your opinion on the destroyer s condition? He asked. Well sir, it s in shipshape. We ve done absolutely no major damage to it. I don t fully understand how, but they seem to employ some new armour technology as well as some other things I cannot be sure about just now. If we can figure out the controls, it ll fly us anywhere though sir. Larek reported.

Mr. Idamha, how s your assessment of the damage to the Deuzige? Christ asked the engineer of the origional crew. The bridge is gone, That s the most prominent part of it. The other plasma cutter beam hits cutoff one of the nuyscells and part of the soucer section is missing. For a more detailed rapport you d have to wait a month or two. This vessel needs to do one thing, and it needs to do it fast: Get to a shipyard or starbase! the engineer stated without leaving any room for misinterpreting the message. Hmmm. Very well. With how many people, minimum, can you get this vessel to the nearest starbase? Christ answered with a question. Well, if we don t need to make repairs underway and don t run into unexpected visitors we should be able to manage with 25. He replied.

Ezri, how many people do we have available right now? Origional crew and others on board? Christ turned to Ezri. Well, seems like a large portion of the USS Shake s crew was hitchin a ride on this tub. Ezri started her replie In all we have a crew of 438 available She answered.

Okay, Starfleet has ordered the following. The USS Deuzige is to head for the nearest starbase, an Akira class is enroute to supplie escort, The USS Deuzige will do so on an absolute skeleton crew. The rest of it s crew is now assigned to me and to the Destroyer.

He looked around and smiled at the surprised faces. He understood now the pleasure the admiral had had when giving him and his crew the orders.

On the Klingon homeworld there seems to be a political crisis. There are houses, from the region around Donatu and from around Klach D kel Brakt, who feel that the Klingon Empire missed an opertunity to conquer the federation after the dominion war. They feel that the Federation is what stands in the way of the Klingons to rule the Alpha Quadrant. They no longer recognise Mortok as the Chancellor of the high councel.

They are rumoured to have attacked several vessels and stations before us and they seem to be heading straight for Antaris. Wether they have any knowlage of what the Federation is doing there is unknown but we re ordered to find out their intentions and if possible stop them from succeeding.

Again he looked at each of the faces for a few seconds. Amazingly he saw only determination in the faces of the assembled officers. He added Seems we are getting a chance to let the Klingons know how we feel about killing our bridge crews ourselves.

Christ turned his attention to Mimat, the Deuzige s Engineer. Do you think you re up to it? Taking the Deuzige back to Deep Space 5 I mean? he asked him. Well, I ve got some good ensigns and junior officers who were going to be reassigned to command crews who can take bridge duties, If you can spare me a few engineers I ll be allright. The engineer replied.

Very well. Falo, you see to the crew assignments, Ezri, you will take care of the logistics part of this little venture. Make sure we ve got what we need on thatKlingon vessel. I mean quarters, replicators, translator units for anyone who s not up to specs with basic Klingon and so on. All personal belongings of all transferring personall need to be transported to the respective quarters. Nesnaj, I need you to start figuring out the Klingon tactical controls and weopanary. The orders litterly flowed out of his mouth as if Christ was listening to his former captian instead of being the one giving the orders. Christ noticed he found himself asking the same question an awfull lot: What would Cap Deadman have done?

Aerdna, you should get to the destroyer asap and start figuring out the communications on the vessel. I ve allready asked mr. Lalbeohk to assist you in replacing the bridges consoles with lcars displayes and interfaces. They will still be far from standard though so you ll need to familiarise youself with the different controls. He looked up at everyone but that goes for anyone I guess he added.

Lecheim, make sure the injured are all prepped for transport, and set up shop in the destroyer. Being a Klingon vessel, I guess you ll have the hardest job of all, creating an exceptable sickbay on it. He said to the chief medical officer. No problem sir. The chief medical officer of the Deuzige is uninjured and in control at the moment, She will have the injured prepped if they aren t allready., That s why she is not here right now. I allso happen to know the Deuzige carries medical equipment and medications for the Antaris Medical command so we can use them to create our sickbay on the Klingon destroyer. By the way, what is the name of the Destroyer? Lecheim asked.

IKD DivI may Duj would be my choice, but starfleet does not consider this destroyer as being confiscated. We merely borrow it from the Klingon Empire so we ll have to do with the name it has now: IKD Qugh he replied. As he noticed only a few smiles he decided to translate: Imperial Klingon Destroyer Disaster and then he looked at their faces. Then he loughed. Ok people, lets get to it, we ve got some Klingons to catch up to!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Home sweet Home.

Report! Christ called out as he entered the bridge of the Destroyer.

All stations report ready sir. Engineering reports all impuls and warp engines operating at maximum possible efficiency . A voice could be heard from the turbo lifts

Well over maximum efficiency you mean! I ve revved the warpcore up to an efficiency of .. and the voice was interrupted by the closing doors of the turbolift. over 158% captain the voice of Larek finished the sentence over the communicator. Thank you mr. Lalbeohk. That s commendable Christ replied with a smile on his face. Continue Falo he turned back to his first officer.

Communications Helm and Medical all report ready as they ll ever be. Science reports no changes were needed to that station. Christ turned to look at Ezri and was greeted with a smiling Trill face that made him feel warm inside.

Guess you can handle Klingon controls and readouts due to you re experience with Klingons eh? he asked her. Well, I am part of the House of Mortok and I was married to a Klingon you know! she answered. Christ knew that allready though.

Very well, Aerdna, open a channel to the USS Deuzige He ordered as he wanted to say goodby. Channel open sir, Aerdna said. Mr. Idamha are you ready to depart? he asked the chief engeneer of the Deuzige. Yes sir, we re as ready as we ll ever be. Thank you for keeping us alive Captain. Bye. Deuzige Out

The crew wached as the Deuzige arched back, turned and shot into warp. Okay, we ve got some catching up to do. Begin longe and short range scans. Set a course for the Antaris system and engage, at maximum warp. Christ ordered.

Now it was the Disasters turn to arch back, in the opposite direction of the USS Deuzige and then turn and dissapear in a bright reddish flash. All that remained as a witness to what just happened there was a piece of saucer section, a Galaxy class starship s bridge and a nuyscell gently floating toward a red giant star.

For the next few days, the IKD Qugh flew a zigzag pattern across the course to the Antaris System. By doing so they made first contact with a species before not encountered by the Federation. They came across a vessel which obviously had been attacked. The vessel had fired their final weapons power on the Qugh when their scans showed it to be the same design as the 2 birds of prey that had attacked them 2 days before. Only diplomaticly brilliant response by Christ prevented the Quch from having no option other than to return fire, (Christ beamed the entire crew to the bridge).

This encounter told the Quch s crew they were on the right track and allso provided the Quch with two warp trails to follow. The IKD Quch was faster than any bird of prey and calculations showed they d overtake the two birds of prey in 37 hours.

Christ was in his ready room when Lerak came to see him. Come in mr. Lalbeohk. What can I do for you? Christ asked. Well sir, I ve been going through the ships database. After bypassing some very elaborate security encryption codes and security lockouts with some help from Ezri I ve found out a lot about the technology on this ship. What I found out concerns me a lot Captain. Lerak stated.

Christ looked at him with anticipation. Well, go on, spit it out he said as Larek took to long to his liking before continuing. Well sir, I think there is a spy very very high up in the starfleet command chain. The Forced Plasma beam cutter is allmost identical in design as the forced plasma beams on the USS Shake. Besides that, the armour technology used on this destroyer are allmost identical as the one starfleet refuses to use because of the tempral prime directive after Voyager s return. I know about it only because I was part of the Strip crew that took the Future technology off of the Museum piece Voyager now is.

Christ had to swallow a few times as he realised what that meant. You ve got a report ready on this? he asked. Yes sir. Here it is. Lerak replied holding up a PADD. anything else I should know? christ asked. Yes sir, The reason they were able to beam in through our shields is that they had our shields frequencies, The Deuzige is an older type vessel which still hasn t been upgraded to use randomly rotating frequencies. This means that if one knows all used frequencies and has the rotation cycles right, they can transport in as if the shields were nt there. Larek added. Make sure they re not able to do the same with this vessel. I don t perticulartly like these Klingons. They re unpredictable and have a lesser sence of honour than we re used to. I don t wanna have to go hand to hand with one of them. Christ ordered him. And give this report to Aerdna, and ask her to come in Christ added.

You asked for me Captain? the young peljannite asked. Suddenly Christ realised how young the crew was. Noone on his crew was over 45, and most were under 25. Yes I have, sit down. I need you to send a high priority, high security clearance message to Christ said as he was interupted by his computer console chiming to indicate a high priority message from starfleet. Sorry, coul d you wait outside for a few seconds? He asked Aerdna. As she left the bridge Christ entered his clearance code.

Looks like you re in for a whole lot of problems Christ . Sorry to say, because of treason within the highest echelons of starfleet command .. were the first words Admiral Picard said. The words went past Christ. He figured as much. How else could this many Klingon vessels get through Federation Space undetected.

Well, and a good evening to you to admiral Christ replied lightly. What kind of problems are we talking about? he asked. Well, as you might know we ve been having a lot of exchanges of officers between the Klingon Empire and the Federation. One of those exchanges was Admiral Ptagh. He is, as we have been informed now, part of the renegade fraction in the Klingon Civel War. Picard explained.

Excuse me sir .. Civel War? Christ interupted to ask. Yes, the Klingon High Councel has now officially admitted this situation has into a full scale conflict worthy of the name War. Picard answered. The Admiral obtained the secret preliminary designs of the weapons on the Shake and of the armour on the USS Voyager when it returned. He continued.

He had 2 destroyers and 2 birds of prey fitted with the results of Klingon Engeneering of the federation preliminaty designs. You noticed the effect. Now as luck has it the Admiral s treatury was found out and we ve allso discovered that the remaining Destroyer with it s escort are heading for the Antares shipyards to destroy it. Picard spewed the information as if he was in a hurry.

Your orders are to head for the Shipyards at best possible speed to head of the destroyer. If you arrive sooner than the destroyer, you are to take up a defensive cloacked position near the shipyards. The shipyards are kept unaware of what s happening so operations there will go on as usuall, erousing no suspiscion with the destroyers crew, until they are to late. You have orders to disable and capture the 3 vessels if possible, but to destroy them if they pose a threat to the shipyards. Picard finished.

Admiral, you know they are a threat to the shipyards because they are there to RED ALERT! Captain to the bridge! Man Battle stations! The interuption was as rude as it was shocking, Sorry sir, I ve got to go! Christ said as he ran towards the door to the bridge.

REPORT! Christ yelled as he entered the Klingon bridge of his IKD Qugh. 2 Klingon birds of prey, escorting a Qugh class destroyer sir, they ve detected us and turned to an intercept course. Their weapons are charged and their shields are up. Nesnaj reported swiftly, Number one, what s your assessment of our chances? Christ asked. In a direct confrontation with them, as we re headed for now, we don t stand a chance sir! Falo answered.

Engage armour Nesnaj! Christ ordered. Around the ship a secondary shell was formed by what seemed to be sheets of metal . Only Christ knew this technology was not of this era. Even though he knew the Klingons he would be fighting would have the same shell around their vessels it gave him a secure feeling to have them.

Captain, this is Lerak, I have an idea to even the odds just a little bit sir. I found out that the plasma cutter beam this vessel uses is based on preliminary designs. If you let me I can increase efficiancy on them within 5 minutes sir. They d be up to 600% sir. A voice sounded on the comm.

DO IT ASAP! We need an edge agains these asswhipe s! Christ practically yelled Good work Larek! he added.

Sir, permission to post security teams around the ship just in case they board us sir Dnevel asked. Good idea! was Christ s simple reply.

Ezri, how many people are on board those vessels? Christ had turned toward the trill. To far away to tell sir! She answered.

Sir, they ve fired torpedoes, 8 in all. Nesnaj reported. Naj Treeg, evasive manouvers. Nesnaj, switch the phasers to rapid fire and target the torpedoes. Fire 2 torpedoes at each vessel Christ barked. Torpedoes away sir! the replie from Nesnaj came allmost simultaniously with the order to fire. He d excpected the order and had anticipated. The Qugh was able to pick off 5 of the torpedoes one by one. The other three hit the shields of the Quch. Shields holding at 89% Captain. All Klingon vessels are preparing to fire their forced plasma cutters captain. As Nesnaj finished saying it the three vessels fired a beam of forced plasma at the Destroyer. Two of them hit and rocked the ship violently. Fire forced Plasma beams, disrupters and torpedoes at the destroyer now! christ yelled. Seconds later 4 beams of disruptors, 8 torpedoes, and 2 forced plasma beams (adapted by Larek) shot from one destroyer to the other. First to hit were the disruptors, followed by the torpedoes, nocking down the armour in a small area. The forced plasma beam hit the destroyer at that exact spot and sliced through the hull as if through butter. An instant later the beam exited the destroyer on the opposite side of the entry. As the beam stopped, the destroyer exploded in an amazingly small explosion sending pieces of debries all over the place. One bird of prey cought in the blast was suddenly dead in space.

Nesnaj, target the remaining vessel and fire all weapons at it! Christ ordered. But sir, I m sure we can disable the vessel. There s no need to . Nesnaj intervened. Sir, they ve gone to warp. They ve allso cloacked sir. No way to track them with the sensors on this vessel sir. We ve lost them! Ezri followed to interrupt Nesnaj. Nesnaj looked at Ezri with a shocked look on his face, punched in a few keys to confirm what she said and then looked at Christ with the same shocked look as he gave Ezri a moment earlier. He could see Christ was absolutely Furious.

Nesnaj, I will see you in my office in 15 minutes! Christ said as he sped off the bridge. Before the door closed he yelled Set a course for the Shipyards and engage at maximum speed!

Damn! he thought entering the ready room. He sat down, and punched the controlls of the console. In seconds the face of Picard showed up. Report! picard simply said. Sir, we ve been attacked by the 3 Klingon renegades. They must have detected us looking for them. They turned to intercept. Christ started his verbal report. We ve been able to destroy one Klingon destroyer and . Shit One moment sir. And christ sped out of the ready room.

Dnevel, get a security team together and .. christ started to order And take it to the bird of prey to arrest the crew. Yes sir, allready underway sir. Dnevel answered. Christ smiled and went back into the ready room,

Sorry sir, just making sure of something Christ said to picard after taking a deep breath. Before Picard could scald him for his behaviour christ continued. We ve disabled a bird of prey as well and are now taking the Klingon crew in custady. The other bird of prey got away untouched. . Picard had a surpised look on his face as he never expected the Qugh to be able to win a head on confrontation. How did you manage that Captain. You were outnumbered! he asked in appearant disbelief. Well sir, lets just say I ve got one hell of an engineer who souped up the forced plasma cutters on this baby and gave us the edge. We destroyed the destroyer and the blast took out the bird of prey. Before I could decide wether to disable or destroy the bird of prey that was left it went into warp and cloacked. I take full responsabillity for that sir, Christ answered. Strange isn t it? How engineers can make the difference between victory and defeat? Picard asked more to himself than Christ. He remembered all the times Geordy had saved the enterprises ass. Larek was clever enough to see the design used for the plasma beams was an early design of the ones used on the USS Shake. He souped up the Forced Plasma beam cutters by using that knowlage. Noone else in starfleet would have even thought of it. Christ replied, commending his engineer. What are our orders sir? Do we look for the bird of prey or do we head for the shipyards and defend it there?

Go to the shipyards. Starfleet has ordered the shipyards to step up the construction. When you get there in two weeks, you ll find her ready for her shakedown cruise. Well done! Make sure though you don t make admirals wait in mid discussion again Captain. One might think it to be insubordinate Picard said. Christ smiled. Thank you sir, I wont. He answered.

very well. I ve been assigned full controll over the USS Shake project, so we ll be speaking to eachother a lot. I think we ll get along just fine. Report to me when you ve arrived. The rest of the USS Shake s crew will all be there when you arrive. Some have been reassigned from the transport ships but they ll all perform the tasks they ve been assigned to acceptably. Picard out.

As the screen turned black Christ took some deep breaths, Nesnaj, come to the ready room please. He said into his communicator. Moments later the Bajorran came in. He stood to attention, as Christ proceded to give him a good shouting and informed him this incident will go on his record. Then Christ ordered him to do double shifts for a week as a disciplanairy measure, and dismissed him.

After Nesnaj had left, the councellor came into the ready room. Yes Lucyanna. What s on your mind? he asked the beutifull Betazed. You didn t think I d come to see you after our little battle just now? she asked him in return. Well, ofcourse I did. I just wondered if you were gonnan second guess my desiscions as well. He replied. No I am not. Nesnaj was out of line. You are right, I just came in to tell you he know too. He feels really really bad about it too. I thought you d wanna know that. I ve never seen an entire crew fall so much in love with their leader as this crew has with you Christ. Falo, Dnevel, Nesnaj, Naj Treeg and the rest i mean. They have the fullest trust and confidence In you and your skills. The two battles we were in and the way you handled them was amazing. They know it and respect you for it. That s what I came in to tell you. Lucyanna told him. She looked into his eyes and saw his confusement. He d felt as if he d screwed up big time by allowing the Klingon bird of prey to escape. He d never even considered the fact that he and a crew only flying the vessel since a couple of days defeated a Klingon force bent on destroying them when they were outnumbered. As he let that sink in, he smiled and turned to the Betazed. Well, pack up your stuff cause we re finally going to our new home! he said.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Arriving at the USS Shake!

Captain to the bridge! Falo said into his communicator. On my way Christ replied. He walked from his quarters and went into the turbo lift, As he walked onto the bridge falo turned to him. Captain, we are now entering the antares system! he said with twinkles in his eyes. Christ noticed the viewscreen showed blackness. Drop to impuls and on screen number one Christ said. He wached the screen with anticipation. As the screen came to life it showed a few dots flying around a big boxlike shape. Magnify to fill screen! he ordered. Ezri punched some controlls and suddenly an amazing sight filled the viewscreen.

The big boxlike shape was the shipyard ittself with in it s clutched the USS Shake. A site everyone who saw it was baffled by. The slick lines of the carrier were a far cry from the shapes they d imagined USS Shake to look like. From the little they could see of the hull through the docking arms holding the vessel they could make out the shape was actually very attractive. No saucer section could be found on it, undeniably indicating the changes in starfleet design. As everyone looked closer at what they thought to be shuttles hovering around the yards they saw they were actually defiant class vessels. Suddenly 3 of the defiants swirved and formed up. They arched backward and shot towards the destroyer IKD Qugh. Open hailing frequencies! Christ ordered realising they were in a Klingon destroyer. We re being hailed captain. The answer of the communications officer came before Christ had finished ordering. On screen! he replied.

This is Well Captain! Welcome to Antares! Nice ship you ve got there! The face on the viewer said recognising the crew of the Destroyer as being starfleet. Thank you, it is a nice ship but I do think I like our new home better allready. Chrust replied. Hell, you ain t seen nothin yet Captain, you wait until we get close to it! the officer in command of the Defiant said. Follow our lead to outer docking bay 38. You can dock the destroyer there. Everything is ready for you sir, with the crew you ve got there we re allmost there. Only 2 more passengers left to pick up. The officer finished.

The destroyer followed the lead defiant as the 2 others picked up an escort position. The sight on the viewer became more baffling and stunning as they got closer. They could clearly see now the 2 forward docking bays for the battle command cruisers. There allso were 10 docking bays at each side of the vessel for the defiants. Each had his own bay so repairs could be done independent of eachother. Most of the bays were closed but 4 of them were opened. Through the shipyards clamps they could see a bussltle of activity, mostly on the systems around the bay as apposed to the vessels the bays held. Christ left the docking to Falo. He felt he needed to get onto his vessel as soon as he could and wanted to be ready to board it when docking completed

As the doors of the airlock opened and Christ stepped onto the shipyards outer docking clamps which were holding the USS Shake he was greeted by the shipyards commanding officer, Commodore Alesru, and an officer Christ did not know. "Welcome to Antares C aptain Christ van Silfhout. We are happy to report that the USS Shake is completed and supplied. All crew except for you and the ones that came with you on the USS Deuzige... eeh sorry about that. I still can't believe the Deuzige was destroyed a few hours away from DS5 bt a single brird of prey. I ment to say IKDQugh ofcourse." the commodore said shaking his hand. "What? Destroyed? By a klingon bird of prey? Are you sure about that?" Christ asked in disbelief. "I'm sorry sir, i assumed you knew because usually we get to hear everything last." was the commodore's answer.

"Any survivors?" Christ asked. "Only 1 sir. Only the battlebridge survived and the only person on it was the ships Chief engineer mr. Idamha."

"That's terrible. We should have destroyed the bird of prey. I feel a certain amount of responsibillity." Christ said more to himself than to others. "Things happen wether we want them to or not son. Don't worrie. If you did detroy the bird of prey i'm sure something else would have happened to the vessel. But anyway... Life must and will go on. Do you want to take command of your vessel now sir? The bulk of the crew is waiting in the theater sir." the commodore said. "Very well. I;m very curious about the theater. It's the first theatre on a starship of starfleet isn't it?" Christ replied. "Well, the first real one opfcourse. So far there were only ones in holodeck programs." the answer came from the unknown officer. "How rude of me. Captain may i introduce you to the last additon to your bridge crew. Lt. jr. Illenafuz. She will be your UADSA operator.

The commander picked up. Nice to meet you captain Assena said. I will be your eyes across an entire sector. There is almost nothing that escape s UADSA s scanners she followed her greeting. Welcome to our crew. Hope you will enjoy your time with us. I do fear we ll be having a rough ride. Being the first with anything is always hard. Christ said while shaking Assena s hand. He looked at the short round alien woman. She looked kind of odd with her skin reflecting the light making it shine like metal. The skin was reddish in coulour and had no texture at all. It was really like metal all the way. Even to the touch,

Christ noticed when he shook the hand. He followed the commodore and went through some passageways and was greeted by his first officer. He suspected he d transported over to the ship before he would get on. Just like Falo to keep things by the book. They went through the official traditional procedure for handing over ships to their new commanders. And then they went to the Theatre.

It was much bigger than Christ imagined. 300 people were gathered to finally see their commander. Their Captain, the man they d have to trust to keep them alive. Christ was directed to the centre stage and his communicator was switched to a shipwide channel as well as to the theatre s sound system. He spoke:

Man and Women of Starfleet. You have been selected to become part of Starfleet and indeed The Federation s history. You shall be part of the largest single starship s crew ever. You will serve on the greatest power that Starfleet ever has been able to unleash on anything. Not only are we the greates military force but a scientific force as well. We have new technology in sensors in weapons and in propulsion.

The USS Shake will go down in history no matter what we ll do. It is up to you and me to make sure we go into history a great success instead of failure. I pledge to you to do whatever lies in my power to keep you and the ship safe in accordance with the directives, general orders and morals and principles of the United Federation of Planets. All I ask of you is that you follow the same directives orders morals and principles in carrying out your duties. I know you will not let me down, as I know we will go down in history as the most successful vessel ever to serve in Starfleet.

A moment of silence worried Christ. He had hoped not to sound stupid but somehow he felt he d not been successful. Then there was a rumbling muffled sound of chears going up around the ship, which overflowed into the Theatre. Everyone stood and cheered. They got the message! Christ thougt.

Okay people. Let s get final preparations for departure underway shall we? Christ said after a while. I ll go get our orders and I ll inform you all of them as soon as we are on our way. Number one, please have wings DEF 1 and 2 commence standard patrols. Assenav, fire up the UADSA as soon as we re clear of the shipyards. Falo, contrary to tradition I want you to take the Shake out for hir maiden voyage. I ve got an admiral to talk to. Christ followed. DISMISSED he said and suddenly the crew sprung to life, everybody leaving to their stations.

Walking the rather long distance to the turbolifts Christ was surprised of how little people there were in one place at the same time. On starships at time of departure from shipyards or starbases there were always people running to be on time, and people working on last minute quirks and problems in consoles. There was no sign of that here. On his way to the turbolift he saw only 5 people, leasurely walking to whatever their destination was. In the turbolift he was joined by Ezri. Well, what do you think about this vessel Christ? she asked casually. It s not really all registering. The sise of it is amazing! Christ said. Yeah, it s really something And you re in command! She said. Huh,,, ever since I saw this vessel for real I ve been wondering wether I m the right guy for this job

Christ, all I can say is the same thing you said to me when I doubted my assignment: You have proven you are a valuable officer and make the right descisions I am proud and lucky to have you as my commanding officer and I have every confidence in your ability to perform your duties as such." She said to Christ, looking him straight into his eyes. Christ looked down into those eyes and smiled. With you as my science officer, what can go wrong! he said. The two officers looked into each others eyes motionless for a few moments and were brought back to reality when the turbolift doors swished open and showed the bridge of the USS Shake. It was large and as apposed to normal Starfleet design it was triangular. In the middle of the bridge were 3 chairs. One was somewhat larger and had a few more controls in the armrests as the other two. The one in the middle.

Captain on the bridge! The young Yiridian yelled as she saw Christ and Ezri come off the turbo lift. As you were was Christs standard replie. He walked to the centre seat, his seat. He moved his hand over the leather coverings and the armrests. The chair was one that would be more approptiate for an easy reading chair in one s quarters. It looked comfortable but instead of trying out the chair Christ walked on to the captains ready room. He had an Admiral to talk to.

As the doors swished open he noticed the ready room was also a lot larger than the ones on other Starfleet vessels. The feeling it was large was espescially enhanced by the smallness of the Klingon Destroyers ready room he d grown used to the past few weeks. The triangular shape of the bridge was also used for the ready room. The captains desk was at the back corner of the room. Christ took a seat and noticed the layout of the desk was almost equal to the standard ready room desk of any starship except for 2 extra consoles. One showing the status of the defiants and the Advanced tactical battle cruisers. The other showed the status of the two hullpieces out of which the carrier consisted. Christ turned the screen of the desks main console towards him and said to the computer:

Get me Admiral Picard on a secured channel the computer chimed acknowlaging Christs request and seconds later the bald headed legend appeared on screen. The face Picard had on worried Christ, I m afraid you ll be doing the test runs on your way on your first mission Captain! Picard opened. I m afraid we re in more trouble than we can handle! he followed. Can t be much worse than the dangers the federation s been in before Christ started to say but as he saw the anguish in Picards face as he said that he knew he was wrong.

The borg? Christ asked. Yes. We think so. We ve detected a very small Borg vessel in Federation Space. The Enterprise under Captain Will Riker and the Velociraptor, a modified Defiant have been dispatched to investigate. The vessel sent a burst transmission though to a location near the edge of the Alpha and Delta Quadrants. There the transmission was received by something or someone but that s all we know of it. We don t know what the message said, or why the Borg vessel is here in the first place. We need you to track down the receiver of that message, and find out as much as possible about the reveiver, the message and the Borg. The Federation is concerned that the Pathogen Voyager introduced into the Borg collective has not been as effective as we d all hoped. This would undoubtedly mean the Borg are headed to our sector in full force with the soul intent to destroy us once and for all. Eliminating their gratest threat to date Apart from species 8472. Get underway to the message s target location at once. Report when you are underway. Picard out

Picards words were still ringing in Christ s ears as the screen went blank. He couldn t believe this. Was the Borg threat never going to stop? He stood up and walked to the doors separating the bridge and the ready room. As the doors swooshed open he noticed one of the advantaged the new disign held. From the doors he could oversee the entire bridge. He could see on the main viewer they'd allmost cleared the antares system and that they were ready to go to warp. Falo, set a course for the following coordinates and engage at full warp. Inform the crew we ll not be going to test run the vessel, but we re going straight into active duty . In unexplored space. Christ said as the destination coordinates were being sent through to conn and the science and tactical stations. I want to have a staff meeting as soon as we re underway. Councellor, could you please arrange this? I ve got something else to tend to . He continued and then sped off the bridge." Captain, it s a petty you couldn t be there to see the departure. Falo said as the captain came in for the meeting. So am I. I m allso sorry for the reason for that. I was talking to Admiral Picard. He informed me of some very bad news. Christ said to everybody. Sir, priority one message from starfleet. It s a live feed from the USS Enterprise E sir. Aerdna interrupted. On main viewer! Christ said.

The viewscreen changed from black into a view of a planet, a spherical shape and 2 starfleet vessels. The 2 vessels approached the sphere which was very small in sise compared to the 2. Suddenly 2 beams came from the sphere, enveloping the 2 ships from stem to stern slowly but doing no damage. Then a beam shot out into nothingness. The 2 starfleet vessels took up attack positions, but before they could fire a single shot the sphere vanished into a huge explosion which swallowed up the 2 starfleet vessels. Then the transmission broke up.

Aerdna, contact starfleet and find out what happened. Allso ask for orders. Christ yelled at the comms officer. eye sir she answered startled and punched a few keys. Incomming transmission sir She said after a few seconds. It s Admiral Picard sir! She followed with a smile on her face. Before Christ could order it the head of Picard appeared on the viewscreen.

He d moved to his Ready room, which was a complete mess. The ceiling had partially collapsed as far as could be seen on the viewscreen. Picard himself showed some cuts and bruises and his face was grimm. Admiral, are you allright sir? Christ asked. Yes I am, but only just. The explosion of the Borg automated reconnessance vessel destroyed the USS Disintegrated and damaged the Enterprise extensively but fortunately we were not destroyed. I see your crew is there as well. Good. Listen carefully.

The location you are now heading for is the location that last beam from the Borg vessel was directed towards. It was a burst transmission. Find whatever that received the transmission and after reporting your findings to us you are to go to the Delta Quadrant as far as needed to find out the status and intentions of the Borg. The federation cannot afford to be surprised by the borg again. But the most important thing of all is that you survive to fight the borg if needed. Picard spuwed his message out allmost without breathing and then terminated the transmission.

Okay people, I think that was clear as a bell. As we are going into unexplored space we need to be ready for anything. Assennav, what s the status of the UADSA? Christ said after a few moments of silence in which the message of the bald headed legend sank in.

We are ready to put the UADSA online for the first time any time we drop from warp sir. I had preferred to do this in a sector of space we know everything about just in case we need to recallibrate some sensors but in theory this is not neccesary. She answered. Very well, as soon as this meeting is over I want you to get prepared. I ll order us to drop to impuls so you can do what you need to do. I want to know whats in a place before we get to it. Nesnaj, I want you to take the USS Authority and the two wings and fly point for the Shake whenever we are not at warp from now on.

We need to make sure we don t run into any surprises even with the UADSA operating. I d like to have you out there as a security polocy. Naj Treeg will give you his preliminary work on manouvers. You ll allso have an opertunity to do some on the job training with your crews and your wings. Christ ordered his security chief. Your sensors will send their data straight into the UADSA as well as into your own computers. You lll receive the UADSA s information on your consoles unless you specify otherwise manually Assenav added.

Thank you. Ezri. When we find anything we want to investigate on the UADSA, we ll send you out with the USS Commander to investigate it. We ll keep the USS Shake as far away from anything we don t know as we possibly can. We ll use the Tactical Battle ships s close range sensors to increase resolution of the UADSA s scanners. Ezri, as soon as we drop out of warp I want you to start drills and exersises for your crew and for your wings. Naj Treeg will assist you the same way as he does Nesnaj. Falo, I want you to get to your station for a test of the hull seperation sequense and the USS Dutch. We re now still inside of the space explored by the Antares mission 20 years ago so we should still be in safe space.

We can do some drills to see where we need to pay attention to. We don t want to find things out during a crisis situation. I want all of you to do as many things as possible at least once so we know if it does or doesn t work. There s a lot of astroids around here so we ll use them for target practice if they re uninhabited ofcourse. Dismissed. Councellor, meet me in my quarters in 1 hour. Christ spewed out the orders very fast as usual but they were clear. This would be a crash test.

Dropping to Impuls sir Naj Treeg informed the bridge. All vessels deploy deploy Christ ordered. What came next would be a site never to forget though in fact noone could see it from any perspecive showing the whole picture. From the front of the huge vessel two Tactical battle cruisers slowly moved forward. The saucersections preceding the clearly recognisable defiant base. From both sides of the carrier, simultaniously there were 10 defiants shooting out incredibly fast from each side. Forming 4 wings of 5 vessels each they arched backwards and took up an escort position each along one side of an advanced tactical battlecruisers. Then, the USS Commander arched up, and slightly to the right, to come to a position under the carrier to the right.

When it came into position suddenly a fissure could be seen between the lower parts of the carrier. The fissure grew larger and as one part of the hull was broken af for a reasonably large distance away from the greater part it suddenly arched down, and moved away from the carrier, followed by the USS Commander. The first ever successful launch of the carriers vessels and It s hull section the USS Shake, the USS Dutch was a fact.

Congtatulations to all! You have all just paricipated in HISTORY Christ spoke into an open channel to all vessels and all crew, Okay. Falo, take the USS Dutch out to maximum warp for a few moments, log all internal sensor data for Larek and return to redock. Then the USS Commander is free to take it s wings for an 8 hour Battle drill. Nesnaj, you are free to commence your 8 hour drill at once. Success to you all. Christ ordered.

The USS Dutch arched away gracefully, escorted by the USS Commander and 2 wings of 5 defiants each, and jumped to warp. A mighty sight, leaving all who d seen it struck with awe. The USS Authority arched in the exact opposite direction but instead of jumping to warp it set a course for a nearby starsystem which had 4 planets orbiting it. It was lifeless and had an asteroid belt around it .. Perfect for some tactiocal games, or at least Nesnaj seemed to think so.

Dnevel, please come to my quarters right away. Christ ordered looking at the young security officer. Christ left the young peljanite in charge of the bridge and ordered the UADSA officer to bring the UADSA online and run all diagnostics on it. As Christ reached his quarters he saw Dnevel allready waiting for him. Reporting as ordered sir. Dnevel said as he saw his captain approach.

Dnevel, come in, I need to talk to you in private. Christ said, leading him into his quarters living room. Take a seat. As Dnevel sat down, so did Christ. As you might know, we are going after Borg . This means there is a large risk that the Borg will attempt to assimillate us. I don t think I need to tell you we cannot allow that to happen. We might need to make contingency plans for a situation where there are Borg inside the carrier and we cannot do anyrthing directly to drive em off. In a scenario of that sort, I might call upon you to completely isolate a section of the vessel to beam it into space . Killing whoever s in that section, no matter who it is. I wanted you to, secretly, train your men in that. This means that when I give the order, noone, absolutely noone gets of of the section I give the order for. And that security teams set up structural integraty forcefields around it at once, not concidering who s on that perticular section.

Do you understand? Christ said to his security chief. Does this apply to sections where you are captain? he asked. Escpescially when I am on a section I order to be shot off! Christ emphasised espescially so Dnevel would understand. And once I have given the order, it is unreprable. Not even I can recall that order, do you understand that? He asked. Yes sir, I do. Dnevel replied shortly and to the point. I will not let you down he added. That s all then.. We ll call it Security order Zeta. This will stay between the two of us .. That s an order! Christ said. Dismissed. He said.

Right as Dnevel was leaving the councellor showed up at the door. Come in Lucyanna. Great timing. Christ greeted her. You wanted to see me about something? Lucyanna asked as she took a seat. Yes I did. I want to ask you something. Christ replied. You want to know if there are any members of the crew for which the Borg hold a special meaning of which you should be aware? Lucyanna asked. Christ looked somewhat surprised but then remembered the last conversation he had with her. Yep. That s exactly my question. Christ confermed.

Yes there are. All of them. The Borg are the greatest threat to the federation and all other living species to have ever existed. The encounters with the Borg we ve had cost so many lives that everybody in starfleet lost someone they knew. I m more worried about Admiral Picard though than about anyone aboard this vessel. His encounters with the Borg may now cloud his judgement She said, not looking at Christ. Then she looked him deep into his eyes. How do you feel about going straight to the Borg as your first mission? She asked. I don t think I need to answer that .. You know how I feel! He replied. That ll be all. He finished.

8 hours after the drills had started the several vessels all returned to the Carrier one by one. Christ had Lucyanna keep a close eye on the returning crews and had asked her to tell him if there were any crewmembers that felt uncomfortable with the way those drills went. She hadn t sensed any yet. The UADSA pre-startup diagnostics were also almost complete. Within the hour they would know what it would do. Christ became more and more worried as things progressed so easy. He expected more problems to have arisen during the drills, as everyone else did. None occurred. The tactics that Nesnaj and Naj Treeg had suggested seemed to work fine in the drills and so did all systems on all ships. Dnevel had some security drills done but even they went off without a hitch. Christ couldn t get murpheys law out of his mind though.

Christ went to the console in his quarters and punched in the controlls to get Picard on the line. The legends face appeared in moments. Well, Captain. How far along are you? Picard asked. Not far at all sir. I thought it nessecary to conduct some drills and tests and have the UADSA brought online before we entered unexplored space sir. I just called you to inform you that There were absolutely no problems or anomalies at all Which is worrying. Christ replied. Picard smiled. I see the new building techniques and protocolls used during the Shake s construction have payed off. I m pleased to hear it. How long until you can get back underway? he said.

Well, the drills are over and we re preparing to dock the USS Dutch with the Shake in 5 minutes. The UADSA will come on line any moment now, so we should be at warp speed within the hour sir. Christ reported. Very well. You mustn t take this urgency to litterly Christ. In contrary to what some might say, it is just as important you map out and record whatever you come across on your way to the Gamma Quadrant. We need to make an assessment of how fast the Borg will be able to move through the area s. But we do need to know as soon as possible though. Picard out. And black was the screen. Christ hated it when Picard did that. Cutting off the conversation right after he d spoken his last words without giving any chance for response.

Christ walked through his quarters through the door to the turbolift. Usually the Captains quarters were the ones closest to the bridge but this vessel wasn t usual, even in that. Christ entered the unusually large turbolift and stated a firm Bridge and waited as the doors closed.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The e"Q"uasion becomes difficult.

Well well So this is the federation Captain that has to save the Galaxy from the Borg? a voice asked from behind Christ. Christ turned around and looked at the face of a man he had seen in Acadamy many times .. Q!

Oh no . Q! was all Christ could say as he looked into the only face in existence Christ had hoped never to lay eyes on. I hope you realize what you are up against Q said. What are your intentions? Christ asked, trying not to answer anything. I came here to see if there was any hope left for this Galaxy. If you don t stop the borg for once and for all, I might have to scratch this Galaxy of of my possible list for my Honeymoon. Q answered. Christ realized Q had information Christ needed. Explain! he ordered.

Come come Captain. If you know enough about me to recognize me you should know better that to ask such questions. Q answered with a smile. Q, let s get one thing straight. I m not like the other Captains you have pestered before, Picard and Janeway! I don t play games. Either you tell me what you know or you ll be ignored. Whatever happens by your doing then is your responsabillity not mine. What you do that is none of my business. So if you re here to help, help but if you re here to pester us! Give it your best shot! Christ shot off to Q annoyed that he d run into this omnipotent AssHole this soon into their mission. If you re gonna be that way! Fine. Have a taste of pestering then! Q yelled enraged, and he made a gesture with his hands, disappearing in a bright flash of light.

RED ALERT! MAN ALL BATTLE STATIONS! ALL DEFIANT WINGS SCRAMBLE SCRAMBLE! CAPTAIN TO THE BRIDGE Suddenly came schreaking out of all speakers and communicators. Damn was the only thing Christ could utter as he latterly fell onto the bridge when a big explosion rocked the carrier.

report! Christ yelled as he got to his feet. Borg cubes sir. 4 of them. They appeared out of nothing as if they were sent here by Q or something! Falo answered. Naj Treeg! Get the Carrier out of here at high warp as soon as all vessels have launched Christ ordered. Then he tapped his communicator. Shake to Authority and Commander. Nesnaj Ezri, I want you to coordinate the attack on one cube each first. Send one wing each for the first attack. See what you can do with normal phasers and torpedoes first. I don t want to alarm them on our other new tricks up or sleave. Concentrate fire on the absolute center of the cube. Keep the Battle cruisers on the background as much as possible. We ll have to take the carrier out of harms way but we ll be watchin your every move and provide you with UADSA information as it comes in! Christ spewed out the orders again. Again everybody understood and complied with smoothness and ease never seen on a starship before. Well well So this is the federation Captain that has to save the Galaxy from the Borg? a voice asked from behind Christ. Christ turned around and looked at the face of a man he had seen in Acadamy many times .. Q!

Oh no . Q! was all Christ could say as he looked into the only face in existence Christ had hoped never to lay eyes on. I hope you realize what you are up against Q said. What are your intentions? Christ asked, trying not to answer anything. I came here to see if there was any hope left for this Galaxy. If you don t stop the borg for once and for all, I might have to scratch this Galaxy of of my possible list for my Honeymoon. Q answered. Christ realized Q had information Christ needed. Explain! he ordered. Come come Captain. If you know enough about me to recognize me you should know better that to ask such questions. Q answered with a smile. Q, let s get one thing straight. I m not like the other Captains you have pestered before, Picard and Janeway! I don t play games. Either you tell me what you know or you ll be ignored. Whatever happens by your doing then is your responsabillity not mine. What you do that is none of my business. So if you re here to help, help but if you re here to pester us! Give it your best shot! Christ shot off to Q annoyed that he d run into this omnipotent AssHole this soon into their mission. If you re gonna be that way! Fine. Have a taste of pestering then! Q yelled enraged, and he made a gesture with his hands, disappearing in a bright flash of light.

RED ALERT! MAN ALL BATTLE STATIONS! ALL DEFIANT WINGS SCRAMBLE SCRAMBLE! CAPTAIN TO THE BRIDGE Suddenly came schreaking out of all speakers and communicators. Damn was the only thing Christ could utter as he latterly fell onto the bridge when a big explosion rocked the carrier.

report! Christ yelled as he got to his feet. Borg cubes sir. 4 of them. They appeared out of nothing as if they were sent here by Q or something! Falo answered. Naj Treeg! Get the Carrier out of here at high warp as soon as all vessels have launched Christ ordered. Then he tapped his communicator. Shake to Authority and Commander. Nesnaj Ezri, I want you to coordinate the attack on one cube each first. Send one wing each for the first attack. See what you can do with normal phasers and torpedoes first. I don t want to alarm them on our other new tricks up or sleave. Concentrate fire on the absolute center of the cube. Keep the Battle cruisers on the background as much as possible. We ll have to take the carrier out of harms way but we ll be watchin your every move and provide you with UADSA information as it comes in! Christ spewed out the orders again. Again everybody understood and complied with smoothness and ease never seen on a starship there were allready two wings launched when the Borg cubes appeared, the launching was completed in minutes. In the mean time, the 2 wings of defiants swarmed around the cubes using the missles to take out any torps fired at the carrier.

Sir, we re being hailed by the lead borg cube Aerdna said. Very well, on screen. Christ sighed, thinking he d hear the old we are the borg speech.

A borg face appeared. I am 1 of 10, unamatrix 003. I wish to negotiate your surrender to our superior forces. The borg said. Christ, and anyone else that heard it were stunned. eer. There s nothing to negotiate about. You will lower your shields and surrender your ships or leave this section of space at once. Resistance is futile Christ replied. He could hear Dnevel chuckle behind him, and couldn t help but smile as he heard it.

Your assumption is flawed. We are the superior force and therefore you cannot win this battle. Surrender and explain why you brought us here at once! was the answer from the Borg which surprisingly called himself I .

Listen Christ said on a reasoning tone. You re obviously a reasonable guy! Let s start over. I am Captain Christ van Silfhout of the Federation starship USS Shake. We are on a peacefull mission of exploration and you attacked us unprovoked. We have nothing to do with however you came here Now why don t you tell us a little bit of you.

This converstation is futile, you re explaination does not compute. You shall be assimilated was the only answer the Borg gave before the screen went black.

Sir they re firing again. The esign on Tactical said. Falo, get to the Dutch and launch. We ll have to cut em up with as many forced plasma beams as possible, and we need to do it simultaneously or else they ll adapt, and send the information back to the hive. Christ said to falo. Then over the Comm: Ezri and Nesnaj, each order your wings to attack one cube with plasma cutter beams at my mark. Both the Command battle cruiser should target one as well. Falo and I will both target two cubes with our cutter beams. Noone fires until I give the command and noone forgets to fire when I do. Is that clear! Christ spewed as Naj Treeg was developing sweat on his face from the extensive evasive manouvres he was pulling the carrier through.

In unisin everybody answered Yes sir. Only one minute later the carrier was fully empty, and it s hull section separated. This threw the borg off for a few seconds, discontinuing their operations for a few seconds. The Tactics developed by Naj Treeg positioned every single vessel in the perfect position in those few seconds.

FIRE! Christ shouted. Simultaniously 27 Forced Plasma Beams shot though space, resembling a scene from a 21st century house partie lasershow. The 4 cubes were all hit by multiple beams. Two of them exploded emediately as they were hit by the bigger and more powerfull beams on the Shake and the Dutch, but pretty soon after that the other two exploded as well. The armour on the surrounding vessels was the only difference between being obliterated by the exploding cubes blasts and the minor damage they did sustain.

In a few seconds space was once more a silent place, and nothing reminded of the horrible encounter the Shake s crew went through just now.

All ships return to your launch bays except for wings Alpha and Delta. Stand down red alert. Christ said. Assenav, I want to know why you did not see those cubes coming! I ll be in my ready room! Councellor! he ordered and went from the command chair to the ready room. Councellor, do you have anything to say about anything that just happened? he asked before the doors could close.

Sorry sir, I m not sure. I did sense something from the borg cubes And that s what s so strange! I Shouldn t! Lucyanna replied.

What did you sense? Christ asked. Confusion, anger. They did not know how they got here Christ. That s sure. They were not here by their own free will. She answered.

At that moment everything seemed to freeze in time, except for Christ. Well . Are you ready to listen to me now? Or should I grab some more cubes from the Ga Delta quadrant? a voice came from behind. Christs blood starten boiling again .. Q!

Very well, talk! Christ yelled. Aren t we easily angered! Q said in reply and he motioned his fingers. In a great flash of light the surroundings changed. Christ found himself hanging in space. He could breathe, and felt no cold or heat, but he was defenately hanging in space.

Now, you re gonna hang here and cool off for a minute Q said. And with a bright flash Q disappeared. Christ looked around a bit. Then, he noticed he was not that far above a planet. In stationary orbit so it seemed. The planet looked grim. It looked like it was covered in metal, and green lights could be seen through holes in it s green brownish cloudcover. Then something started moving from the surface. First one small object, then two, then 10 and within seconds it seemed like the entire planets surface rose up towards Christ.

After a few moments Christs heart skipped some beats. He could finally see what it was that was lifting off from the surface. Cubes .. Spheres ..Borg Cubes and spheres THOUSANDS OF THEM!

Then a bright flash came. Christ was back in his ready room. Q was standing right in front of him, and was looking straight into his eyes. Now will you listen to me? Q asked. Do I have a choice? Christ replied with a question .

Ofcourse you do . Just keep in mind that the fate of this Galaxy depends on what you do with the opertunity to save it i am offering. The cold sarcastic voice of Q said. Christ thought about it for a second and said: Okay. Okay, let s assume this is not a ploy concocted by you to make us miserable or to entertain you with. What s the bottemline? What do you want, and what is going on? . Q looked at Christ, thinking about what to make of this Human. He sure was no Picard, but somehow the way Christ refused to give Q the benefit of the doubt interested Q. Well, you just saw what this is all about. Q said. No I did not. I saw thousands of Borg ships take of from someplace. Nothing else. Christ replied. sigh Do I have to spell it out for you? That was the closest Borg staging area to the Alpha Quadrant. The taskforce you saw taking off was the taskforce with the objective to assimilate sector 0-0-1 and the rest of the Beta and Alpha quadrants. That s what you just saw! Q said, annoyed because Christ seemed to want everything spelled out for him. How close to the Alpha quadrant? Christ asked. Besides the fact that that is irrelevant, I am not allowed to give that kind of information to mear mortals. Q answered. Then why show me this at all. What do you expect me to do? Turn around, and tell Starfleet what you showed me? And then what? Christ asked in an agitated voice. Q looked at Christ and then said Accept the federation can never withstand this attack force. Accept that Humanity is not able to secure it s own survival. Christ looked at him in disbelief. I ve read about you! You ve been telling us that from day 1! We ve proven you wrong time and time again. We will do so again. We will survive! . Q sighed one more time and then said. Well . You now know what is in store for you. And if you continue on this useless mission, you ll be further and further away from the solution to the problem than you are now. You re choice. Accept Humanities failure or Accept it s assimilation. I ll be back And with that statement Q left.

Christ thought for a few seconds and tapped his communicator. Assenav, come to my ready room please . On my way.

Assenav entered the ready room and sat down. Assenav, is it possible to scan long range for a large disruption of subspace? Christ asked his UADSA operator. Sure sir, no problem. How far away do you want to scan? She asked him. Well, I want to know if there s a large disturbance in the Delta Quadrant moving toward us. He explained. Ah . That s tough. I guess there s not enough range even on the UADSA to do this. We ll have to enhance the UADSA with external sensor data. I guess for what you intend to do we need the Hubble Tribute Array. She thought out loud. We ll need clearance from Starfleet for that she added.

Very well. I ll make sure we get that clearance. Prepare the needed adjustments and stand by. I ll be on the bridge in a few minutes. Dismissed. Christ said. Assenav left and Christ punched in the controls he needed to to get Admiral Picard on the line. You can t have made it to the destination yet, I assume there s trouble? the Bald man on the screen asked. Well, I suppose we d best handle it as such for now sir. I just spoke to an old friend of yours again. Christ started explaining. The face of Picard turned dark and full of desgust. Q! he hissed. Yes sir. I must say the experience was not what I ve expected from Q. He seems to want to help us defend ourselves against the Borg. Christ stated. And he couldn t just apply at the academy huh? What happened? Picard asked, knowing very well how frustrating Q can be.

After Christ had told Picard the whole story, the authorization for the usage of the H.T. Array was given, and Assenav was now scanning the Delta Quadrant for big subspace distortions. After 15 minutes she found what they were looking for. Got it sir! Anomaly moving at . Warp 9,921 heading for . Us . Alpha quadrant I mean. No, wait, the anomaly is gone. It seems it just dissipated. It slowed down and dissipated. Assenav reported the readings. Ezri had her sensors tied into the UADSA s and analised the data. Captain. The anomaly was caused by a number of objects all traveling at high warp. She said to inform Christ. How many objects? he asked her. She punched some keys 15.000 sir, of various sises. Christ looked at her in shock. 15000 vessels? That s more than Starfleet built in her existence! How can the Federation face this many Borg s? He knew the answer but refused to accept it. Why did they dissapear from scanners? he asked. Unknown sir. Ezri replied The most logical assumption would be that they decided to stop somewhere. They slowed down before dropping out of warp, suggesting no incident but intent. Naj Treeg jumped in. Christ looked at the Vulcan who had turned to face them. You re right. They stopped because they wanted to. But why did they want to .. he said. Then the Admiral, who d been on an open channel all this time, said: I ll have to inform Starfleet of this. They will undoubtedly put this to the federation council. I ll get back to you as soon as I have some more information for you. Picard out. And the connection was terminated.

STAFFMEETING! In my ready room right now! Christ ordered. As he did he went to his ready room and waited until the bridge crew was assembled. He informed them all of the situation giving a recap of what happened the past few days. What I want from you is figure out a way to slow the Borg down, or even defeat them. I want you to prepare because if my feeling is right, this is something we, the USS Shake, are gonna fight first. We ll be the first ones to reach them, and fight them.

Everyone looked at each other. No ne had any ideas. Then Lucyanna decided to jump in. Sir I can speak for anyone here. Everyone here thinks we haven t got a chance agains that sise of Borg force. We re not even gonna be noticed by them . Not even the entife fleet is gonna be able to make a single dent in one of the vessels. We re toast!

Christ looked around in disbelief and then there was the bright flash again. One that was becoming familiar by now: Q! After the flash was gone, he found himself on a planet. Obviously an M class planet. Q was there As well as lucyanna . Christ wondered why. Q What are you up to? Christ asked. Captain. Don t tell me you re still not convinced of the futility of a federation-Borg battle? Q replied sarcasticly. Okay, I admit it. We haven t got a chance of beating the Borg on our own. There! Are you happy now!? Christ practically yelled at Q. You humans, you can get so emotional about things.! Q smirked. Even about such a thing as being inferior to another species.! He added. Christ freaked, and lucyanna jumped in. Q, what are your intentions. I can sense your feelings Q and they do not contain joy in what you tell us or how we react. I assume you re not doing this for your own enjoyment but why then .? Q looked at the Betazed with surprise. I brought the two of you here because I wanted you to discover something .Grand. and with that, the ground began to shake. Slightly at first but progressively worse and worse. Then, only a few meters before them, the ground started to rise. Before they could begin to think about what was going on a building had appeared before them. Q was gone.

Well . This is new! Lucyanna smirked and glanced at Christ. Damn, you wanna go in don t you? She asked. I don t need to answer that do I? Christ answered. Together they started towards what looked like a door. Christ used his tricorder to scan the structure and the controls for the door. According to my tricorder this is billions of years old! he said in awe. Lucyanna confirmed the findings of Christ, and punched the doors controls. Got it. She said and the door opened. Emediately inside the lights came on. On the floor two circular pads appeared, leaving no room to stand anywhere else. Christ and Lucyanna stepped in. As they both stepped on one of the circular pads the room came to life and before the two knew what was going on they disappeared and reappeared in a completely dark room. Slowly a humming noise grew in volume until it filled what sounded to be a great hall. Then lights started to flicker. Then the hall was completely eluminated. A fantastic view unfolded before the two.

The hall was like a catherdral. The design was fluent and round, and defenately far more advanced than anyone had ever seen. Many unidentified machines, computer consoles and other strange objects were placed against the halls walls and a big column of fluerecant light was fluctuating inside a big cylinder in the middle of the room, remeniscant of an engineering section of a Starfleet vessel, only bigger. Lucyanna and Christ started to look around. Christ looked at the screens and readouts he saw but couldn t make out what they said. Then he heard a scream. Lucyanna!

Lucyanna, where are you? he yelled as he scanned the hall to find where she d gone. No reply. Then, he saw her .. Moving up the room, pulled by two tubes stuck in her sholders. She looked .. Yellowish, with green/gray vaines As if She was injected with Borg nanoprobes.

Christ raced to grab hold of Lucyanna before she was out of reach but he was to late. He tried to grab his phaser but it was gone. All he could do was watch as Lucyanna was pulled screaming and kicking into the ceiling of the hall. Then the screams stopped, and suddenly all the machines in the hall started to come to life. Then, the lifeless body of Lucyanna dropped from the ceiling onto the floor. Christ ran to it, scanned it and found it to be dead. Then a voice bellowed through the hall. Lucyanna s voice. I AM THE CONCIENCE OF MANY! I AM THE ONE WHO BRINGS ORDER. I AM THE MIND OF THE KRYKTPACRI. I AM FUNCTIONING ONCE MORE! is what the voice said . WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY CREWMAN?! Christ yelled facing upward to where the voice came from. YOUR CREWMAN IS ME, I AM YOUR CREWMAN, CAPTAIN van SILFHOUT! was the answer. SHE GAVE HER LIFE TO GIVE ME LIFE. A CIVILISATION S HISTORY PRESERVED TO BE USED FOR THE GOODNESS OF ALL. The voice continued. I WILL BRING YOU BACK TO YOUR SHIP. FIND KRYKTPAC PRIME CAPTAIN. FIND IT AND ACTIVATE THE REDEMTION DEVICE. FULLFILL THE DESTINY OF OUR RACE! and with that, the entire room started to rumble. The devices hummed with power coursing through conduits. GET OUT CAPTAIN! GET OUT! said the voice as the trembling got harder. Christ decided to get to the circular pads on which he and Lucyanna had materialized before. As he got on, he appeared back in the room they had entered in the first place. Q stood outside of the little structure. As the trembling got worse Christ ran out of the Structure just in time to see it dissapear into the ground as it had appeared from it. Then, he started running away from the place the structure had been in. When he looked back he stopped in his tracks. A section of the planet, about the sise of a large metropolis had started to rise, and showed the structure to be a huge vessel. It rose higher and higher, until it vanished from sight. Christ looked at Q who had a sarcastic smile on his face. HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO LUCYANNA!? he yelled emotionally. Why captain, I made her part of a billion year old Civilisation, which I may add, holds the key to the survival of the Galaxy. Follow the clue I gave you. Find the vessel you saw lifting off. Then you ll find the key to defeating the Borg .. and Q was gone again Christ looked around looking quite lost for a second as Q reappeared. I almost forgot. He said, and with a bright flash, Christ reappeared on the bridge of the USS Shake.

Captain? What happened? said Falo as he noticed his Captain was back on the Shake. And where is Lucyanna? . Christ looked at the faces looking at him. Lucyanna will no longer be joining us. She s Busy. Christ said, and then headed to his ready room. Falo, get in here!

Falo entered the Ready room and sat down. Christ looked at him. He d have to give Falo, what starfleet did not think he was ready for. There was no choice however. Falo, i hereby give you a field promotion to Captain. The USS Dutch is yours. We ll be seperating in a few hours, after i had a talk with the Admiral. You ll be heading straight into a fight you cannot win. I m effectively ordering you to commit suicide. Will you accept voulentarily or do i have to get Admiral Picard to make it an official Starfleet order?

Falo looked at Christ. Christ was serious, his face told falo that. Sir, i think i can safely say that i trust that you wouldn t order me to do this if the federation s future wasn t at stake. I accept

Good. Now i ll tell you what s going on. We ve got a serious problem as you well know. I ve been on a little field trip, Q style. Lucyanna and me were on a planet, where appearantly an ancient civilisation had a base of operations. I know no more than that they were called the KRYKTPAC and that they have a Redemption device as they call it. Lucyanna is now somehow incorperated into an alien device. I haven t got a clue as to how, but the structure Q brought us to came to life after taking Lucyanna. It claimed to be the concience of an entire civilisation and spoke of the existance of a Redemption Device . I am inclined to assume this is what Q had in mind for us to find and use. Christ explained to Falo.

So you want to go out and find that device? What am i supposed to do in the meantime? Falo asked. Hold up the Borg as much as possible, so we have time to find the device, and the federation needs time to make contigiency planns. Christ answered. Huh . Right .. and how am i gonna do that? With 10 Defiants and a Carrier against 15.000 Borg vessels? Falo returned. That s something you need to figure out. To be quite honest I don t know. All i know is that if you can t do it, noone in starfleet can. Christ looked at Falo, frowned and said You are up to this right? . Falo quickly replied Ofcourse i am, i just hope that we have enough firepower. Christ turned and walked to the bridge saying It ll have to be enough . It s all we have! . He walked to the science station. Ezri, take this tricorder. I ve scanned the whole time i was down there, so i must have picked up some info on the structure i was in. I seem to remember the metalcompounds were really weird. Maybe we can find more of it if we feed the data into the UADSA. Ezri took the Tricorder and uploaded the memory into the computer. Then she faces Assenav and said The data is in there now, but i need to analise it first. It ll take some time before the conversion to UADSA encoding has completed so i won t be done for at least 1 hour. You can join the rest and relax for a while. . Assenav got up from her station, nodded to the captain and left.

Meanwhile in the hallway where the twelve holodecks were located, Lecheim was walking to Holodeck 5. He had some Holodeck time left and thought this would be as good a time as any to relax. As he wanted to get in he litterally bumped into Aerdna. Sorry. I didn t expect anyone here. Most people are not in the mood to relax some strange way. He said to Aerdna after he helped her back on het feet. Aerdna looked at him, wanting to get angry but somehow she didn t. You re right. I would love a real person to relax with that spend my time with holodeck programs. But somehow everyone seems to want to stay in their quarters. What program did you run? She asked him. Well, I ve just been doing some orbital skydiving he answered. Isn t that dangerous? She asked with a surprised face. Nah. The holodeck safety protocols make sure it s not he returned. Why don t you try it?

Very well, I will. Will you come with me? she said. She opened the door after asking the computer to reset the last run program and stepped in. The room she entered was windowed all round and as she turned around she could see the planet around which the orbital platform was circling. There was noone else there but Lecheim and her. On the wall hung some orbital jump suits. Lecheim started putting one on, and then looked at Aerdna. He found her the most intriguing member of the crew. Never in the forefront, but always present. He admired her ability to do her work unnoticed but impecibly. As he d finished putting on his jumpsuit he noticed she hadn t gotten fat at all and he helped her get in. As he touched her skin, guiding her arms into the sleeves it seemed like he got little electrical shocks. He dismissed it as emagination but when their heads came closed he felt uneasy. They looked deep into eachothers eyes. After a few moments he broke the silent moment. Well, we re suited up. Let s jump . And he walked to the exit door. Put on your helmit and stand in front of me. As I open the door, you jump and I ll follow after 5 seconds. He said. Aerdna did what he told her and when they both had their helmets on and confirmed oxygen was flowing richly he opened the door. Emediately the two were sucked out of the booth and were hurdling towards the planet. AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaahhhh. Was the only thing Aerdna could utter. Relax! Nothing the matter. Relax and enjoy the ride. The force fields will do all the work. Lecheim said through the comlink to put Aerdna at easy. Aerdna quickly regained her composure and flipped to face the planet, and Lecheim. She flipt him her middlefinger and dove into a steeper angle. She missed Lecheim by centimeters and whizzed past him. He dove down after her.

Larek to Captain v. Silfhout. Larek said into his communicator.


End file.
